The Worst Witch 2017 - Trauma
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: As the Third years return to Cackles, one of their own has suffered and continues to suffer. Rated M for content.
1. Chapter 1 Coming back to Cackles

Authors note - My thanks to ImaginationofAFan who gave me the basic building block for this story.

Disclaimer - I don't own The Worst Witch, you should know that by now.

Author's note 2 - I'm hoping to give something truly different with this story, so I'd like some feedback, particularly since the story is a darker toned story.

Coming back to Cackles.

Returning to Cackles Academy after the summer holidays on their broomsticks, cloaks flapping in the wind exposing the figures in their school uniforms consisting of a gym slip, black boots, grey shirt and striped tie with a sash either coloured purple, yellow, green, or red, the students were preparing to continue their magical education. Since they were flying in near broad daylight many people on the ground, non-magical people should have seen them, but the spells placed on every broomstick prevented anyone from noticing them. But there were exceptions. Many witches and wizards of the magical community believed that magic should remain firmly in the magical families, but that didn't stop some people from possessing magic. People who, as far as they knew, didn't have any magical heritage.

Mildred Hubble was one of those people.

Flying on her broomstick with her red lined cloak flapping in the wind wearing the traditional garb of a Cackle's student, Mildred sat on the broom as she travelled to the Academy for her third year at school. Despite many people's beliefs that she wasn't good a flyer, Mildred had only needed time to develop her skills. That was the problem with many of her detractors - they were so quick to judge her without giving her the chance to spend time honing the skills on her own. Granted, she wasn't great, but she was okay, and besides the Academy wasn't that far from her home; it was the equivalent of boarding a train to the nearest city, which only took 45 minutes on a good day, but on a broomstick a journey that would have taken a while only took her half an hour.

Mildred looked around the skies, noticing that it was still early morning, so she had the skies pretty much to herself - she'd hated to leave her mother so early, but with things at work being as bad as it was for both of them, Mildred had felt it was a good idea to just slip out as early as she could and reach the school earlier than normal. The early morning air should clear her mind as she flew back towards school. Mildred wasn't really bothered about being the only witch out in the sky at the moment, she just wanted to be left alone for the time being. All she wanted to return to Cackles and forget about what had happened to her. Staying in her flat with her mother had been driving her crazy, the only bright thing had been her mother.

Besides, with the colour of her skin and look of fatigue in her eyes, anyone with half a brain could tell that Mildred hadn't been sleeping very well recently, not after what happened….. Mildred shook her head, desperately trying to get her mind out of those thoughts, though it hadn't helped matters when her mother refused to leave it alone. And those questions….. What was the point of asking someone the same questions over and over again when the answers wouldn't change? Oh, she knew that the police were only asking them to get a picture of what had happened, but it was still frustrating….. She only hoped…..

She shook her head, trying to think positively about returning to Cackles. While some of the work was hard, it had taken Mildred a while to reach the level she was now, but she was still behind the other girls.

When she landed in the courtyard of the castle, Mildred saw she wasn't alone. There were a few girls already there in the grounds, looking like older students and they looked as tired as she was but unlike her they were more excited and happily chatting to other's who'd listen about their holidays, but Mildred couldn't see any of her friends, she was still tempted to go over and speak to them but decided against it. She wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone at the moment, and she just wanted to be left alone at least until Maud and Enid arrived. Sitting down on a bench she rubbed her eyes and held back the urge to yawn, cursing the summer once again for giving her nightmares. Palming her face, she tried rubbing her eyes to coax some life back into them when a voice interrupted her.

"You are early, Mildred Hubble."

Mildred was glad she was facepalming, otherwise she'd be seen rolling her eyes at the observation. "Hello, Miss Hardbroom," she replied, uncovering her face to look at her potions mistress. "How was your summer?"

Miss Hardbroom towered over Mildred, and though it wasn't even fully bright today she still seemed to create a solar eclipse with her dark clothes and tall black witches' hat. The woman looked the same as ever, but there was something in her eyes that Mildred quickly identified as concern, particularly when she caught sight of the bruise on Mildred's face.

"Mildred, how did you get that bruise?"

Mildred swallowed, realising she would have to get used to the questions until the bruise went down. "I was attacked during the summer, Miss Hardbroom, my mother called the police to find the man who did it. So, how was your summer?" She stood up quickly, hoping that she wouldn't be asked questions now. It was too early, and besides as long as she kept her head down she shouldn't have any problem whatsoever keeping her secret. She had no intention of anyone knowing what had happened to her during the summer - she might have thought of a cover story that was a partial truth, but until she was sure she'd gotten over it she didn't want anyone to know, least of all HB. She had no idea how the woman would react.

Fortunately the woman noticed that she wasn't in the mood to speak, so she decided to put it aside for now but Mildred knew Miss Hardbroom well enough to know that sooner or later there would be questions. As long as they were a long way away, Mildred didn't care.

"Busy Mildred," HB replied in that smooth, but deadly manner of hers, "thank you for asking. How was your holiday, aside from the attack of course?"

Mildred had to fight off the rising panic, but she managed to catch herself just in time before she lost it. "Not bad," she replied before looking around; it was weird to engage in small talk with a teacher as formidable and as nearly unapproachable as Hardbroom, but if she could speak to her a little to throw her off the scent about what had really happened during the summer…..

"How was the Entrance Exam?" Mildred asked, mentally crossing her fingers HB took the bait. The woman had never allowed her to forget or live it down the mess the exam turned out to be for her, but things had mellowed over time, but Mildred couldn't forget all those horrible moments in her first year when she was treated like dirt. It was not her fault she had spent the first 11 years of her life in the non-magical world, was it? She had spent all her life dreaming of becoming a witch, but she had hoped Cackles would understand that and ease her into her new life.

Miss Hardbroom pierced her with a look. "We have three new students from non-magical families, Mildred," she said, the expression on her face could've been chipped from a block of ice for all the emotion it showed, but Mildred had been in so much trouble with the woman for the last two years she could tell that HB was dreading the prospect of teaching three new Mildred Hubbles.

"Where are they?" Mildred asked, excited despite her best intentions to push as many of her emotions to one side so she didn't lose it and draw attention to herself, but she couldn't help it when she heard this news- she remembered how lonely it had been for her in her first year at the Academy, being the only girl from a non-witch family attending the school. Sure, she had Maud and Enid as her best friends, but the three of them were still separated by a wall of culture. Maud and Enid might not be completely separated, they knew about the non magical world, knew what a phone was, knew about electricity, cinemas, game stations and computers, but they didn't use them.

To them, the reality were potions, spells, the Witches' code, and magical history.

But if there were new students like her, they would be as lost as she had been. Their only hope was to be together - it might be social suicide for a third year to mix with two first years, but Mildred would make sure they knew they could see her anytime they wanted, so long as they didn't miss any of their lessons. She didn't want them to endure what she had in her first year. Her second year had been more tolerable, but there were more than a few criticisms.

Miss Hardbroom wasn't too surprised by the excitement in Mildred's features of the prospect of Cackles' hosting more students without magical heritage - Hecate Hardbroom knew only too well how lonely Mildred had been as a first year even with Maud and Enid around her, and she wasn't blind enough to think Mildred wouldn't have been unhappy having someone who shared roots with her at the school. It had taken Hecate a while, but soon she had grown to like Mildred, though she wouldn't ever admit that to anyone besides Ada, and she still felt guilty that she had hurt the girl's feelings with those comments about her being non-magical. While she was concerned that with four girls with no magical heritage behind them, there would be more disasters - it was bad enough with one worst witch than having three more added to the mix, but Mildred had certainly come a long way. That was enough, and besides one of them, with the right mindset, could be a more proficient potions maker than Mildred was.

But it wasn't Mildred fault she and her mother were non magical, and it was still a mystery to Hecate and the others about where these four girls got their powers from.

"They aren't here yet, Mildred, but I'll point them out to you soon," the teacher replied with a promise.

Mildred nodded, and seeing that the conversation was over, Miss Hardbroom walked away but Mildred knew the real reason the teacher had walked off like that - she had wanted Mildred to tell her what was wrong, but it was never going to happen. Not yet, anyway, not if her worst fears were confirmed soon. Mildred closed her eyes and shuddered, trying hard to stop the shaking that overtook her limbs.

* * *

By the time the light fully came out, more than half of the students had returned to Cackles, cheerfully greeting their friends. Mildred's eyes flickered over most of them, recognising several of them from her own year and one or two from last year. Maud and Enid hadn't turned up yet, but there was plenty of time before they arrived. Mildred was in two minds about their absence and knowing they'd soon turn up - on the one hand Mildred wanted to catch up with the pair of them, find out what had happened during the holidays.

On the other hand, Mildred wanted to have some time to herself before they asked the inevitable questions about her summer, but Mildred doubted that their holidays were as awful and as painful as hers turned out to be. Mildred pushed that aside and picked up her stuff and walked around the throng of girls as they chatted under the watchful eye of the teachers on duty - she smiled at the sight of Miss Drill, clad in that dark tunic trimmed with blue with shorts, and Miss Bat wearing her usual robe with black shawl, but she shuddered and her heart pounded at the sight of Mr Rowan-Webb, and she quickly turned away to master her breathing. She hadn't expected it to be this bad, but then she hadn't expected to see the only wizard on the staff so soon, but she had been so distracted by the misery of what had happened to her to realise what she'd have to go through.

Still, it wasn't fair to blame all men for what had happened to her, though it was hard to forget. And Mr Rowan-Webb had never done….that….to anyone, and besides he was firmly in love with Miss Bat.

 _That doesn't mean he doesn't have those urges_ , a treacherous part of her mind sneered. Mildred ruthlessly shut it up, knowing that if Algernon had ever thought of that, having someone 'fresh' he'd have done it in the pond when Ethel had turned her into a frog…

"Millie!" A shout from above made her look up, grateful for the distraction, and she grinned when she caught sight of Enid Nightshade.

"Hi Enid," Mildred called up as the other girls nearby noticed Enid coming into land, and clearing her a space. Mildred rushed towards her friend as soon as she touched down. Enid hadn't changed much over the holidays. She still had her hair in the same style, and she still had that glint in her eyes that hid the monkey like streak of mischief in her. Mildred smirked as she wondered how her friends would react when they saw her hair, but it quickly disappeared when she remembered the other things that had changed for her over the summer holidays.

Enid grinned at her friend and wrapped her in her arms, holding onto the broomstick at the same time. Mildred hugged her back, hoping that the tight embrace didn't make Enid suspicious, and it made her wonder how she was going to tell both Enid and Maud about what happened over the holidays-

"Er, Millie? Can you let me go, please?" Enid's slightly choked gasp made Mildred jump and let go of her, clearly she'd been holding her too hard.

"Oh, Enid, I'm sorry," Mildred said, "I just missed you, that's all."

Enid blew out a breath even as her airway cleared, but she paused as she took a good look at her friend. "Are you okay? You look exhausted. And where did you get that bruise?"

Cursing Enid's too accurate observation, Mildred tried to wave it away. "I'll tell you later. Yeah, I haven't been sleeping. How's it going?"

Enid still looked a bit suspicious, and Mildred held her breath, realising that her friend's streak in causing problems told her straight that the evasion was making her suspicious, but Enid decided to put it aside for the time being. "Brilliant," she replied, "dad took us to Australia to visit some relatives, though they weren't as fun loving, but they did love a few pranks."

Mildred stood there with a grin as she listened to Enid talk about how she had persuaded a few of her cousins into setting off a magical firework in the kitchens of their manor house. Enid had tears of laughter in her eyes as she described how the firework had created a sparking dragon, and Mildred soon followed suit, just picturing the Nightshades extended family gathered for a lovely quiet day, only to receive the shock of their lives when the kitchen exploded with sparks and screaming.

Enid told her how she was punished, which wasn't a surprise, but her parents let her off the hook after a few days, remarking that their extended family were duller than rotting frogspawn. Mildred made a face at the reference, but she could imagine it only too well.

"Anyway, how was your holiday, Millie?" Enid asked once she'd gotten control of her laughter.

Just like that Mildred's laughter was cut off and she became solemn. "Terrible, I'll fill you guys in later," she added, hoping that Enid took the hint not to pry now, not when there were too many ears to hear.

"Okay," Enid nodded, "if you're sure you're okay…"

No Enid, I'm not okay. I'm far from okay, especially if what I think happened happened, but Mildred didn't say that out aloud. Instead, she nodded with a casual smile. But any further conversation between the two girls ended when Maud called from above. Mildred studied her best friend as she landed - while still chubby, Maud seemed to have lost some of the baby fat in her cheeks. They were all growing up, but Mildred was unsure if they would want to know what was out there.

No matter what happened, she didn't want her friends to suffer the way she had. It was weird, but a few months ago she had been so blind to the misery in the world, but now she knew about it and she didn't want her friends to know what could await them out there.

"Millie, how was your summer? Hold on, how come you've got that bruise?" Maud's voice interrupted her inner musings, but fortunately Enid spoke up. "Mildred's going to tell us later, aren't you?" she asked Mildred.

Mildred just nodded, and then she grinned and took her hat off. Both girls gasped.

"Oh Mildred, I love your new haircut."

"It's so short," Enid stated bluntly.

Mildred continued to grin, though she wished she could tell them both the truth about what had made her get it, but she wasn't ready to tell anyone that; her mother knowing it, along with the police and the doctors was bad enough, but she was simply not ready for her best friends to know about it. Maybe later it would happen. Her hair had been cut into a pixie hairstyle. "I'd gotten tired of the long hair after blowing it out of my eyes so many times," she explained.

Maud smiled at her, feeling somewhat envious since out of the three of them Mildred looked the most grown up, and then she noticed something, and she leaned in to have a closer look. "Mildred, is that eyeliner I can see?"

Mildred nodded. "I wanted to look a bit more grown up," she replied, hoping that she didn't give too much away, it was bad enough she was essentially giving her friends a half truth.

"It suits you, it makes you look more of a Goth," Enid commented.

Mildred raised an eyebrow even as she felt the bruise on her face, drawing attention towards it. That hadn't been her intention, it was simply to change her appearance and make her into the grownup she was rapidly becoming. She had no intention of using all the rubbish girls her age outside of Cackles used to cake their faces, she wanted to be different from them. A bit of eyeliner, mascara and some lipstick, and she looked older than she was, not that she would cake her face with that stuff. But she liked the Goth reference, wondering if she was a Goth in all but appearance.

Nah. She wasn't going to dye her hair since there was no point, her hair was dark enough as it was, and besides even if she was a Goth she wasn't one for darker clothing.

But Enid's voice had carried and some of the girls, particularly the ones in their year group turned to see Mildred Hubble. They barely recognised her, even if her slightly moonlike face was identical, and many were amazed by her radical new hairstyle since very few of them had changed themselves so drastically. Then they noticed the bruising on her face, and many of them wondered where she'd gotten it, and some even began speculating.

Mildred noticed the attention, and turned around to take in their stares - it amused her that they believed she would still be the same little girl with long hair in plaits. "What? Never seen a Third year with a shorter haircut before?" she asked, hoping they'd take the hint and get used to it.

While some of her classmates were definitely getting used to it, realising it wasn't a big deal, Felicity came over and grinned at Mildred. "Hey Mildred, love the new look," she said, though like everyone else who'd seen Mildred up close she was concerned about the bruising on her face.

Mildred smiled back. "Thanks Felicity," she replied.

Now Felicity was a nice girl, but sometimes she said the wrong things without really thinking about the consequences. "Did your mum tell you to get it done to go with the bruise?"

"WHAT?!" Mildred shouted, swinging around, her eyes sparking and the very air around her crackling with magic. Everyone nearby jumped at the sound of the shout, and they turned to watch the confrontation. Mildred didn't care though as she focused on Felicity. It was a stupid comment, she knew, but it was infuriating to hear. Especially the insinuation about her mother.

Felicity swallowed hard and stepped back, frightened by the glint in Mildred's eyes. "I should've asked if you asked your mum if you can get it done," she tried to correct herself, but Mildred's eyes narrowed. "I can make my own decisions for myself," she snapped.

Behind Mildred, both Maud and Enid glanced at each other, wondering what it was that had made Mildred so annoyed. While Mildred had taken so much from the others over the years she'd been at Cackles, she had never lashed out like this before. They might not see her face like Felicity could, but they could tell from her clenched fists that she was close to really losing her temper.

"Mildred," Maud said cautiously, "I think Felicity didn't mean anything, did you?" she asked Felicity pointedly.

Felicity shook her head. "N-no, sorry Mildred. I was just saying that your hair was beautiful."

Enid stepped closer, hoping her friend didn't lash out at her either, wondering what the problem was - yeah, Mildred had mentioned she'd had a terrible summer but that was no excuse for her to lash out at Felicity. "Mildred, calm down," she said as gently as she could, her mind racing as she tried to work out why Mildred was upset to this extent.

It was as if a red mist had descended over Mildred the moment Felicity had made her truly tactless mistake. But where she'd normally let things pass by trying to be the bigger girl, letting things slide so she wouldn't sink to their level, Mildred was furious now. Her mum was the only one during the summer to help her - the others didn't really count - and since Maud and Enid were away on their holidays, Mildred hadn't called them because she'd doubted they'd be able to help her. How could they help her?

She had been torn between throwing herself onto Felicity and using magic, but when Maud and Enid spoke to her, she managed to get a grip on herself, and she was beginning to calm down, but if Felicity said one more thing-

Fortunately she didn't. Instead she looked frightened. Mildred closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Felicity," she got out, trying to sound as sincere as she could, though she wondered why she was bothering.

Felicity still looked at bit shocked by what had just happened, but she smiled back and said in her sweet voice. "I'm sorry as well, Mildred, I shouldn't have said that. I was just admiring your hair."

"I wanted something different," Mildred said; it wasn't exactly forgiveness, it was more of a peace offering.

"I shouldn't have done that," Mildred commented as she walked into her room, throwing her things idly on the bed. "I shouldn't have lashed out at Felicity."

Enid and Maud followed her inside.

"What happened Mildred, you've never lost your temper like that?" Maud flopped onto the bed.

Mildred sighed, but she didn't say a word just yet as her mind raced, wondering what she could say, what she could do; lashing out at Felicity was something she shouldn't have done, not if she wanted to hide the truth, but maybe she could tell her friends something without giving them all of the facts.

"Well, Mildred?" Enid asked as she and Maud stared at their friend's back. "Has this something to do with your bad summer and the bruise on your face?"

Mildred closed her eyes, thankful neither of her friends could see her expression. Apart from her mum and a few others, no one knew what had happened to her, and she hoped to keep it that way until she was sure of a few things first.

"Bad summer?" Maud repeated, looking between her two friends questioningly. "What happened? I saw the bruise, but what happened to you to get it?"

Mildred sighed. "I was….attacked during the summer when I went out partying with some friends I have outside Cackles," she explained, hoping to not give too much away, and besides, she was telling the truth - she was just being selective about what she meant by attack.

Maud gasped, hand flying to her mouth while Enid just looked wide eyed.

Mildred licked her lips. "It was a nasty attack. Whoever it was grabbed my hair, and used its length to hold me, it was like a dog owner pulling on a leash. That's why I had it cut, where I got the bruise, and I know that a few people who form assumptions about it and who gave it to me, so I really don't want to talk about it, not yet," she said, adding on the last part as a warning. "Please, just give me time, yeah? I've had an awful couple of weeks, and I can barely think about anything else."

Maud shook her head as she tried to make sense of what Mildred was telling them both. "Who attacked you?" she whispered, hoping she wasn't sounding too pushy given Mildred's current mood. But Mildred didn't mind answering the question. Besides the more she got out now without actually telling them the full truth of the horror, the better, and the more chance people would leave her alone.

"I don't know," Mildred replied truthfully; she didn't know who attacked her, the police were trying to find details and were keeping her mother informed, when she had the time what with the threat of redundancy looming over her head even though mum had no idea if she was going to be laid off.

"Are the police telling you anything?" Enid whispered.

Mildred sighed under her breath, wondering if she should have at least kept her mouth closed so then she wouldn't have had to deal with this interrogation, but her friends needed to know a few details after what happened in the courtyard. They needed to know that she was traumatised. Besides, they could already see the bruising on her face, and the logical assumption would be her mother had given it to her. It was a logical route to take, but it was also a sign people didn't want to consider other options.

"They're keeping my mother appraised, but things aren't going well for my mother at the moment either; she was threatened with redundancy only a month ago, so she's been preparing for the worst and is looking for a new job just in case. But she is aware, and they should tell her if anything comes up."

"Well at least there's that," Maud whispered, stunned and horrified by what had happened to her friend, but she didn't even know the worst of what had happened, and if Mildred had her way it wouldn't come out too soon. She didn't want to be pitied.

"Listen guys, I'll tell you more later, but right now, all I want is just to be left alone on the subject. I've had a gut full of it for the last couple of weeks from my mother, the police, and doctors," she ignored the gasps that the last word evoked when they realised for the first time how bad it was implied the attack had been, "I wasn't seriously hurt, but I just want to put it behind me and focus on my schoolwork with you guys. Okay?"

Mildred knew she was essentially lying to her friends, but what else could she do?

* * *

Unknown to the trio someone had overheard their conversation, and from the look of wide eyed amazement which later mixed with pleasure, she had not only heard every single word, but was delighted by them as well. Ethel, like all of the others in the courtyard had watched surprised as Mildred Hubble, who was usually so meek and mild mannered, and lashed out at Felicity for a careless comment. Sometimes Ethel wondered if Felicity had any idea what tact meant, but Ethel didn't care about that, nor did she really care about Felicity's feelings on the matter. She was more interested in what had made her school enemy so angry. She had followed the three up to Mildred's room, and listened in on their conversation. She was surprised at first that Mildred had been attacked, and her sudden concern for Mildred nearly made her sick, but she got over it quickly.

Ethel knew Mildred hadn't told the complete truth and she guessed neither Maud or Enid would be surprised either if Mildred admitted it, but she knew that Mildred Hubble would probably never tell them anything. Mildred was good at keeping secrets close to heart, it was only Ethel's persistence that had revealed the truth behind the birth order of the Cackle twins. But Ethel had learnt from her mistakes then, she would be more subtle, she would needle Mildred in public. It would all work out in the end.

With a smirk on her face, Ethel walked down the corridor to her room, she had a plan to cook up. Whatever happens, she mused, I'll get one over Mildred Hubble.


	2. Chapter 2 Weirdness

Disclaimer - I don't own what you recognise. You should be familiar with the drill by now. All I own is this story.

Feedback - I would like that because I am doing something that, as far as I know, hasn't been done.

Weirdness.

Walking with Maud and Enid to dinner, Mildred was trying to decide the best way to handle the situation. Losing her temper the way she had with Felicity was bad enough, but drawing attention to herself was much worse. But she had to admit to herself someone would ask questions when they noticed the bruise- Miss Hardbroom had noticed, that meant others would as well. She just hadn't expected the insinuating comment that her mother might be responsible for the bruise on her face.

Mildred had just reacted instinctively, something that had surprised everyone since many people had insulted her non-magical background before. They'd gotten no reaction to that at all, but Mildred had changed over the summer, and since her mother was the only person giving as much support as she could with the Police and the doctors help.

She knew that everyone would be talking about the blow up, the bruising on her face, and she knew that Miss Hardbroom had already probably informed Miss Cackle, which meant the rest of the teachers knew about the bruising. Fantastic.

When she spotted Felicity she walked over to the other girl, who quickly noticed her. "I was attacked during the summer," Mildred told her but everyone in the hall had quietened down to overhear her speak, once again giving the basic story and leaving out the worst part of it out, "on my way home after a night out with some of my friends. The police already know about the attack, and they're keeping my mum informed in case he's caught. He gave me this bruise," Mildred reached up and lightly fingered it, ignoring the slight twinge of pain, "and he also grabbed my hair and yanked it. That's why I had it cut, so if someone else tried to attack me they'd have a much harder time."

Felicity looked stricken and guilty. "Mildred, I'm sorry-"

"Don't be, please," Mildred pleaded. "I just don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"Y-yeah, sure," Felicity replied.

Mildred sat down and waited until Maud and Enid had done the same, all the time trying to work out the right thing to say to them both. She didn't want to talk about the attack, hell she didn't even want to think about it. But she knew it would go down as part of school gossip. Well, the jungle drums would rumble if the whole story was out, along with the worst horror of them all. That was the last thing she wanted to get out now.

"So, what do you guys think the new school year will bring?" she asked.

Enid still looked worried but she was good at hiding it, and Mildred thanked her for that. "Who knows, Millie. Lets hope things are quiet, especially after the last two years."

Mildred was a bit dubious about that. She'd heard rumours that Miss Cackle constantly appeared optimistic about every new year, telling Miss Hardbroom that she expected the new year to be better than the one before. "Yeah," she said, hoping that this year was going to be less stressful for her, but she doubted it. There was a story going around that Miss Cackle constantly told Miss Hardbroom at the beginning of each new year at the Academy that she had a good feeling about the new year. But Mildred knew that while others might have a good year, it wouldn't be that way for her. The attack was still weighing on her mind as it had done for the past couple of weeks.

Sooner or later that story was going to get out, and when it did everything would change, particularly when they heard about the full extent of the attack. A part of Mildred wanted to put it behind her, try to move on and return to the person she had been before the attack, the person who had been innocent, so full of life, so full of nervous energy.

But Mildred knew she couldn't return to that. Ever. That broke her mother's heart the most because while every parent knew their children would grow up, but no parent in their right mind would want that.

"I doubt it somehow," Mildred replied, giving her two friends a viewing of how cynical she'd become. "All kinds of stuff happens around me. I'm a trouble magnet."

Maud and Enid didn't say it, but then they didn't need to, they knew she was correct. Mildred did attract trouble, and lots of it. Most of it came from her lack of knowledge about their world, and though they tried to help they couldn't, mostly because they knew what they were doing and it was second nature for them but Mildred was still learning. Maud herself remembered the time she'd made the mistake by using the forgetting powders to make the teachers forget about the misdemeanours to stop her parents from knowing about them, only for Mildred to pay the price. Everyone had lost their memory of the friendship between Maud, Mildred and Enid, and Maud had sworn never to take their friendship for granted ever again, and Mildred had almost been expelled because of her need to look like the best student. Her parents hadn't been upset when they'd found out what she'd done and what she'd done to make up for it, and that learning from your mistakes was one of the reasons you were in school.

As she thought about it, Maud could see her mother's point, and she only had to look at Mildred (she missed the long plaits, the pixie cut was so odd, but it suited her in a way) and she realised her mother had a point since Mildred did learn from many of her mistakes. Okay, so she might not learn from all of them, but she was doing her best.

Maud was about to open her mouth and say to Mildred that this year could be the exception, only for an unwelcome voice to say, "I'm sorry to hear about your adventure over the summer, Mildred. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Mildred sighed under her breath and glanced over her shoulder. Ethel Hallow had grown up over the summer physically, they all had, but she still looked the same since the last time they'd seen her, and a summer hadn't changed the blond's personality. Though she had masked her inner thoughts behind a mask of understanding and empathy the effect came off as fake, particularly since the trio knew what Ethel was like. At times Mildred wondered what it was about the Hallow family that made someone as talented as Ethel into something so bitter and vindictive, but she didn't care. A quick glance at her friends told Mildred that Enid and Maud knew this was between Ethel and her. She was thankful to them for that, she didn't need an argument now.

School hadn't even started yet and Mildred didn't need a fight right now.

"Thanks Ethel, but no. I'm doing fine, and the police are keeping my mother informed of any new developments that might crop up since the attack," Mildred said, doing her best to smile her usual smile of innocence.

The mask of empathic kindness slipped a little, and the haughty persona of Ethel Hallow returned. She leaned so close to Mildred that the brunette could see the finer details of Ethel's eyes. "I know your not telling us everything, Mildred Hubble," Ethel said in that grating manner of hers that said she knew there was a secret out there, and she would poke and prod to find out what it was. "And I am going to find out what it is."

Not giving her time to come up with a reply, Ethel stalked off leaving Mildred behind. Mildred watched the blond flounce off and she felt her heart sink in her chest, if there was one thing Ethel was really good at doing it was getting people to talk about their secrets.

* * *

The staff were having the first staff meeting of the new year where they would speak about the performance of the girls. The staff usually waited until a week or four days had passed at the start of the new term before they had this kind of meeting, while they still had their regular meetings where they spoke about the latest news, ideas on how the classes should go, etc.

Today would the first meeting the teachers would have to express concerns or observations, and it was a meeting many of them dreaded and looked forwards to at the same time. Many of the teachers disliked having to speak about students not pulling their weight, but it had to be done since their job was to help teach students how to become fully fledged witches.

Miss Ada Cackle both enjoyed the meetings and yet she disliked them since they dealt with the flaws of some of the girls, but she knew like they did they were essential and good for the students in the long run since they could help the girls who were having trouble before it got any worse. The first on the agenda was finding out from her teachers about the girls from the non-magical backgrounds and informing the Great Wizard about their progress. Ever since that mess two years ago when Agatha tried to ruin Cackle's image by making her, Ada, look like a nonchalant fool who didn't care about the students or their education, never mind if they were falling through the air on a damaged broomstick and not doing anything about it, and she'd had told the Great Wizard as soon as she had been woken up from the enchantment and saved Mildred and Enid from their deaths - it had upset her that none of the staff had tried to help either, but they'd been taken aback by the events as they unfolded - that more girls from non-magical backgrounds could find their way into Cackles. The Great Wizard had quickly realised that Mildred wasn't the little monster that he'd been lead to believe she was, and he had quickly warmed to her like Ada had, and he had accepted what Ada had told him about the prospect of more witches from non-witch families attending the school.

There were signs that other schools would be following the new trend, but many of them would be very weary of doing so whereas for some it wouldn't make a shred of difference whatsoever. Pippa Pentangle was one of the leading supporters of the idea to let students from non-magical families into schools, though Cackles was a close contender.

The only problem with having non-magical children in their schools for some of the more strong traditionalists was that they believed that non-magical children could stain the reputations of their own schools, and Mildred Hubble was the first witch from a non magical family admitted to the academy. Within her first few weeks Mildred had lurched from one crisis to the next, and news about her had leaked to the outside. It wasn't fair for Mildred who worked and wanted to be a witch so much, and Ada knew the girl had potential to be a great witch. She just needed time to work on it, that was all. But the poor girl suffered from a handicap - she was 11-12 years behind the level of the other girls, especially Maud Spellbody and Enid Nightshade whose parents and relatives had taught from a young age.

Mildred had never had the traditional training a young witch received during her childhood, and that wasn't her fault, but it did leave her vulnerable to criticism and harsh judgement. The only thing holding Ada and the other teachers back from helping the girl themselves was because they were too busy and besides the girl was bright, she'd soon learn what she needed to know.

But truthfully none of the teachers knew how to teach an 11 year old the finer points of magic, though realistically one of them should have tried. Ada had no intention of letting the same thing happen to these girls, though she would have to include Mildred in the same lessons of how they should use magic. Ada knew she would have to invest quite a bit of her time into it, and she was alright with that.

"Before we begin, I would like to know how things are shaping for the girls this year, Hecate?" Ada looked at her potions mistress.

"The first year girls are settled in Ada, some of them are delighted they're in Cackles. The second years have settled down quickly, as have the third through to fifth years. There haven't been any notable accidents in my potions lab yet, but there are bound to be over the year."

Ada nodded, getting the message. "Speaking of which, how our new girls from the non-magical families? Have they settled in yet?"

Hecate looked around the faces in the room. "Melissa Caldwell is probably the most confident of the girls," she reported, "Deanna Meadows and Katie Pond are less confident, and like Mildred they have had to accept that magic is different from the world they've left behind for the time being. I have noticed their spending a lot of time with Mildred."

"That makes sense," Mr Rowan-Webb broke in, "Mildred was born and raised outside our community, it stands to reason they would look to her for advice and help."

Every one of the teachers nodded in agreement.

"Their broomstick training is hit and miss," Miss Drill said, deciding to add her own views to the discussion. "Like our resident Worst Witch, they have problems balancing on the brooms, but I saw Melissa, Deanna and Katie speaking to Mildred and her friends. They were asking for hints and tips about flying. While Mildred's not the best flyer I've seen, she does have more experience than they do. I think we should accept the fact we're going to have problems from many angles when it comes to students from non-magical families, Ada. Children are taught how to fly at a young age, and they have to work up to get a license. Mildred, Melissa, Katie and Deanna never had that training, so they're at a disadvantage."

Ada came to a quick decision. "Give them as much support as they need, we're going to have to be patient with them. If I've learnt anything since admitting Mildred into the Academy, it's that time is a better friend than impatience."

Hecate was askance with that decision. "Ada, you know as well as I that the broomstick test is important. It can't be rushed or delayed. It isn't fair on the other girls."

Annoyed her decision was being questioned, Ada turned to Hecate. "I'm not saying we should delay the test, I'm just saying we give them extra time to catch up, and give them support. Our mistake was pushing Mildred into it, and it nearly got her expelled. I don't want to make that mistake again. My decision is final."

Hecate inclined her head.

Ada took a deep breath. "How are the three of them interacting with Mildred? It didn't take long to convince their parents there was another, the far older girl from the same world as theirs at the school, but how are they with her?"

"Mildred is very good with them. I've seen them talk, and she gives them as much advice as she can," Hecate replied smoothly, but Ada could tell she was still frustrated by the rebuke. "The girls were delighted when they found out Mildred was the girl they'd heard about, but I worry we're going to have accidents."

Ada and the other teachers knew what she was talking about.

And then Algernon opened his mouth. "I'm worried about Mildred," he said seriously. "Has anyone noticed that she seems on edge, angry and temperamental?"

Ada had heard like everyone else had that Mildred had been attacked during the summer break, very close to the end. "Now that you mention it, I have," Ada said. "I have seen her being short with some of the more curious girls into the attack she suffered."

Miss Bat shook her head, still disbelieving about it all. "I still can't understand or work out why someone would attack her in the first place," she muttered, "Mildred might cause problems, but she isn't the type to attract an attacker. Trouble, yes. Attackers, no."

"I know what you mean."

"Definitely."

"What surprises me is just how extreme the attack was," Miss Drill shook her head, "I mean, dragging a girl on her way back home and then slapping her. What's the point of that?"

"Some people are like that," Hecate commented. "Particularly men. No offence, Algernon."

"None taken," Algernon said, though the expression on his face indicated he was offended. But then the wizard added something new to the equation that further worried the staff.

"Has Mildred been…..odd with any of you?" he asked hesitantly as if he was trying and failing to find the right words to describe it.

Miss Bat looked at him. "How do you mean odd?"

"Just that. Every time Mildred is in my classes since the term began, she isn't her usual self. She's normally eager to learn, but while she's still eager, every time she looks at me or if I ask her a question she looks at me as if she's about to recoil, and there's a look of terror on her face. But its not the type of terror you expect to see on a girl in a classroom, the fear that says they don't know anything. It's a fear from an animal being cornered, a beaten animal. I've never seen anything like it before. Has anyone else experienced it?" Algernon looked around the staffroom, scared he was the only one. But a quick look made him realise that he was the only one.

Hecate looked at the wizard in shock. "She's frightened of you?!"

"Sounds like it to me," Algernon looked sad. He didn't like the impression that he was frightening Mildred, but he was curious about it.

"Maybe the attacker was a man?" Miss Drill suggested. "So, Mildred is wary of men now."

"But she shouldn't be frightened of Algy," Miss Bat glared at her friend and fellow teacher.

Ada had been quiet for a few minutes, listening to the news and the resultant debate with growing trepidation. "Could an attack on someone so young result in a trauma that strong?" she whispered.

"Probably during some cases, but Ethel certainly believes there's more to the story than Mildred's saying," Hecate said grimly. "I have already had to break up two fights between them. It starts the same, Ethel will continually harass Mildred. At first the girl will just ignore her, pretend she doesn't exist-"

Ada sighed, "And knowing Ethel Hallow that was unacceptable."

"Correct, Ada," Hecate nodded, "the last time I broke it up, Mildred had leapt on Ethel."

Ada gaped, but she looked around and saw Miss Bat nod sadly. She had seen it as well. "When did this happen?"

"Half an hour before the meeting began. That's probably why you haven't heard anything about it until now. I couldn't believe it either," Hecate said, "but it is true. Mildred lashed out at her, but Maud and Enid stopped her. But they're as stunned as Mildred herself was, as I was."

"Mildred was stunned when she attacked Ethel?"

"Yes. You could tell she was horrified, and she ran off," Hecate replied. "I tracked her down to the girl's bathroom. She was beside herself, sobbing. I have never seen Mildred like that, ever. I have seen her upset, yes. I have definitely seen cry. But this time…..It was like she had woken up from a terrible nightmare. I can't really describe it."

* * *

Mildred kicked the side of her desk, trying to get rid of some of her frustration. Of all the things she could've done….! Oh, why couldn't Ethel get a life, grow up, and leave her alone?! She had not meant to lose her temper the way she had, in fact she had never realised that her temper would make her do that! Mildred sighed and closed her eyes, furious at not just herself but at Ethel. Thanks to the blond she now had two nights of detention with Miss Hardbroom. What a wonderful start to the new year.

She stood up abruptly and went to the door and cast a locking spell on it before she jammed one of the chairs under the knob. It was a futile gesture, of course since the teachers were qualified and experienced and could materialise in her room, but Mildred had no intention of speaking to anyone. She knew when she left the room she would probably have to meet other witches, but she hoped she wouldn't, particularly Sybil and Esmerelda. There was no doubt in her mind the other two Hallow girls had already heard about what had happened between her and Ethel. Esmerelda Hallow was older, more experienced than either her or Ethel, so if there was going to be any problems it would come from her.

But what made it worse, really worse, was that Ethel's constant prodding over the last few days had opened a deep tear in the story she had told the school about the attack. Ethel knew there was more to it than what was known about it already, and the more she poked and prodded at the story, the more the other girls began realising there was lots they didn't know themselves.

Mildred had also noticed a strain on her relationships with Enid and Maud since they were desperate for the details of the attack, and the teachers were no different. Thinking of the teachers made her grimace since she knew by now that they probably knew about her reactions to Mr Rowan-Webb. A tear came to her eye, realising that she was burning so many bridges.

With a sigh, she decided to skip dinner and just do some work. She opened a window to let some fresh air into the room, petted Tabby and then set down at her desk to begin her homework. Mildred knew she was essentially starving herself, but as long as she had breakfast in the morning she should be okay. She had an hour before her detention with Miss Hardbroom, and she didn't want to waste the time she had moping.

She had just gotten into her stride when there was a knock from the door. It was tentative but rapid. Mildred groaned a little and tried to ignore it but whoever it was, they were persistent. Finally, she gave up and stood up and walked to the door.

"Who is it?" She said quietly.

The voice she had been dreading replied, "Esmerelda and Sybil. We want to talk to you."

Mildred didn't move. "Esmerelda I'm sorry about what happened with Ethel, she just made me furious-"

"I know, Mills," Esmerelda replied. "But we still want to talk to you. Can we come in?"

Mildred was hesitant about letting the two Hallow sisters into her room. The door was the only defence she had in case they came in angrily. But she knew she'd have to get it over with, if not now then perhaps tomorrow.

She cast the counter spell and removed the chair and then she opened the door. Standing on the other side, looking grim were Esmerelda and Sybil Hallow. Both girls had the same blond hair as their sister, and their grandmother, Mildred reflected as she remembered that mess with the Mists of Time.

Esme smiled and held up a small napkin. "Peace offering," she explained. Mildred unwrapped it and found herself looking at a few chocolate bars. Her stomach grumbled and she licked her lips in embarrassment. Esme chuckled.

"Thank you," she said simply before her expression turned serious. "You're not going to ask me about the attack, are you?"

"I was going to, but then I decided it wasn't worth getting attacked in turn," Esme replied, looking serious herself again. "That's the problem with Ethel; she really really doesn't know when to quit."

Sybil nodded, "She's right. Ethel would annoy Morgana herself if she felt she could get away with it."

Mildred wished the two girls would get out. She didn't want to speak to them, even if she enjoyed their company - Esme and Sybil were proof positive not all members of the Hallow family were delusional egomaniacs who held onto a grudge and suckled it as if it were a newborn baby. But she wanted them to leave and get out now. Still she didn't want to show herself as violently aggressive like she had with Ethel, it still amazed her that she even lashed out like that since she had never ever done that before.

She didn't want to do that again to Esme and Sybil - the younger girl certainly didn't deserve that, never mind the older one.

"I can believe that," she said. "I just…wish Ethel would take the hint and leave me alone."

"We've both told her to leave you alone," Sybil said quickly. "She just won't listen."

* * *

After the Hallow girls left, Mildred had to hide her relief because she could see on both of their faces the same curiosity about what had really happened to her, but unlike their sister they knew when to show restraint, for that Mildred was grateful. Now it was time for her to get to Miss Hardbroom, so Mildred headed towards the potion mistress's dungeon (not really a dungeon, but at night it may as well be), her heart pounding like a drum. Miss Hardbroom was nowhere in sight when she arrived through the open door, but as she stepped inside she was unsurprised when the door closed behind her, but she winced when the door slamming echoed throughout the confines of the lab.

"Mildred Hubble, how nice to make your acquaintance in this laboratory for detention again, so soon into your new term," Miss Hardbroom's voice echoed ethereally throughout the room. Mildred looked around and blinked when Miss Hardbroom reappeared, her expression far from happy. It was coldly disappointed. Mildred took one look at it and wondered why she was being punished when Ethel was clearly the instigator, but she didn't dare ask that out aloud.

Mildred wasn't surprised and besides in her mind this punishment took her mind off what had happened to her, and she hoped that HB didn't say a word to her about it. If she had no intention of speaking to Ethel about it, why would she want to speak to HB?

Unfortunately, Miss Hardbroom wanted to know what had happened to her, Mildred could see that, but the woman's aloof manner made it hard for her to ask what had happened. In the end, after five minutes of debating what she could say to her wayward pupil, Hardbroom decided to rely on the old faithful.

"Mildred, I don't know what happened to you, but that is no reason to lash out at everyone," Miss Hardbroom said, waiting for the usual "Yes, Miss Hardbroom" reply that was so boring but essential for the girl's understanding. But Mildred just looked at her, and nodded. "I agree," she agreed. "I'm not happy about what happened either, Miss Hardbroom. You saw that when you followed me into the toilets. I was crying and you saw it. I have never attacked anyone like that in my life, so when I attacked Ethel it made me feel sick."

Miss Hardbroom saw the sincerity on Mildred's face. The girl looked so distraught and sincere she believed her. Them she sighed and set the girl to work. Mildred's job was cleaning the lab.

"What happened to you, Mildred?" She whispered quietly to herself.

* * *

The next day the girls received a treat. Every two months or so the girls would have to pick out ingredients from the herb gardens in the castle grounds for the potion lessons. Every year at the school were allotted their own patch, because each year had its own level of potions.

But it was raining heavily, so-

"Magical Transportation!" Felicity cheered quietly.

It was a treat when the Miss Hardbroom used the transportation spell on the whole class because she rarely used it, only when it was raining very hard. Even Miss Hardbroom, a staunch witch traditionalist who believed that it was a test of character for a witch to endure such harsh weather, had a tolerance limit. She knew when it was too excessive, and besides Miss Cackle didn't want any of the girls to suffer from colds or pneumonia. Every year group loved Magical Transportation. Sure, it was rough at first, the sudden shift from one place to another, it upset the stomach and caused slight nausea, but you soon grew used to it.

It was even more enjoyable because it was a rare treat.

"Girls, gather around, in an orderly manner please," Miss Hardbroom instructed the class as they prepared. Once she was satisfied the class were all present and correct, she cast the spell.

Mildred had been magically transported many times before. When she'd first been sent, she'd felt dizzy and nauseous, but she had quickly gotten used to it, though it had shaken her centre of gravity and her sense of balance, knocking her equilibrium off.

When everyone landed in the grounds, Mildred took a deep breath as she collapsed. She felt as though all of her strength and balance was taken, her legs knocked from underneath. Mildred moaned, feeling dizzy.

She was soon aware that Maud and Enid had dropped on their knees next to her. "Mildred! What's wrong with you?" Maud asked in concern.

Mildred moaned in pain. "N-no," she got out, "I feel dizzy, sick to my stomach."

Mildred could hear the sounds of whispering around her as the others clustered around them, but she didn't put much thought to it. She tried to push past the nausea and stand up, but she wobbled on her legs and would've collapsed if Enid and Maud hadn't grabbed her arms to stop her landing on the muddy ground.

"Mildred, what's wrong?" Miss Hardbroom asked, and Mildred looked at her through bleary eyes. She must've looked a sight even in the rain because Miss Hardbroom looked concerned. She flicked her fingers and a small wooden bench appeared.

"Sit down," the teacher ordered and Mildred obeyed. Once she'd sat down she found it easier to get through the dizziness.

"Thank you, miss," Mildred said.

"What is it, Mildred, what's happened?"

"I feel dizzy."

"I've magically transported you before, Mildred, you should be immune to the effects by now. Does anybody else feel dizzy?" Miss Hardbroom looked up at the others.

"No miss."

"I feel fine."

Ethel, still angry about the attack the previous day and with Mildred's general refusal to talk about her summer, commented snidely, "Perhaps Mildred Hubble shouldn't use magical transportation if she's susceptible to dizziness."

Mildred waved a dismissive hand in her direction, not really giving a damn, but she felt compelled to say something. "Miss Hardbroom just said I've been transported magically before, Ethel, and I've always been fine afterwards. What's wrong with me?" she directed the question towards Miss Hardbroom.

Miss Hardbroom seemed to shrug as she ran through her mind of all the possibilities. "It might be anything, Mildred. There are many possible reasons behind this. Right now I think its best you get to the nurse," Miss Hardbroom said.

Mildred had to fight the urge to recoil. "I don't want to cause any trouble-" she tried to say.

"Nonsense. You are going to see the nurse," Miss Hardbroom's voice brokered no argument. "If you're sick once after transporting after two years of magical education then it could be very serious.

* * *

"It is just a simple case of travel sickness," the nurse said after spending just 10 minutes poking and prodding at Mildred's body - the girl was pleased the nurse was a nonchalant about the students wellbeing much like her colleagues in the kitchens. The dinner witches were nasty towards the students, none of the girls would think about asking one of them for help. Mildred was just glad the nurse didn't probe too deeply, otherwise she'd discover the secret she'd been keeping for days. But since Mildred had had very little contact with the woman besides getting the annual shots to prevent potion fumes getting to her like all the other girls, she had no way of knowing if the woman was that nonchalant all the time, or if she was inwardly excited when something turned up only to become disappointed very quickly when it was a mundane problem.

But the problem was Mildred was positive it wasn't travel sickness. She had an unvoiced suspicion in her mind, one she truly hoped was wrong. Too bad Maud didn't pick up on the vibe that Mildred truly didn't want to know if her suspicion was correct.

"But she's never had travel sickness this bad before," the bespectacled girl argued, "she's been transported before and she's been okay afterwards."

The nurse witch narrowed her eyes. She didn't like her diagnosis being questioned. "I am the nurse here," she replied arrogantly, "I have seen cases like this before, although you are right. It is odd a third year student being weakened by the spell, but its also not uncommon. Have you been eating all right, Mildred? Sometimes a lack of nutrition can contribute to being unable to take the shift of a transportation spell."

At the mention of food Mildred's nausea returned, and the nurse must have noticed because she quickly scanned her again. "I don't understand it," she muttered, shaking her head. Finally she sighed when she realised she wasn't getting anywhere, and she looked at Mildred for a second before she went back over to her desk and began writing a note. "I'm going to have to send a note to the kitchens, telling them of your condition."

Oh no. Mildred looked at her two friends, noticing their own trepidation. It hadn't taken the three of them long to realise the Dinner witches were some of the surliest bunch you could find. Mildred knew that note, whatever was on it, wouldn't make her popular with them. They disliked preparing special foods, preferring to go for the traditional muck witches had been eating since time began.

* * *

A/N - I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Coming up in the next chapter will be revelations of what really happened to Mildred.


	3. Chapter 3 Revelation of Two Hubbles

Hi there, I hope you're enjoying the story. Things are going to become grimmer.

Revelations of Two Hubbles.

Mildred found the meals at Cackles disgusting at the best of times, but this time they were slightly less palatable than before. She was right when she'd guessed out the Dinner witches really would not like having to prepare meals for her specifically, but Mildred had annoyed virtually everyone in the school often enough it made no difference to her one way or another. But truthfully Mildred didn't give a monkeys about what the Dinner witches thought about having to cook something different for her. At least it was better than when Miss Drill had given her those greens before the Spelling Bee thing two years ago - she might understand where the teachers were coming from, but Mildred found most of the preparations so unnecessary like those push ups.

"How's the rice?" Maud whispered to her, looking at the bland looking meal and her friend worriedly. While she was pleased her friend was eating right after that scare with the Magical Transportation, Maud was surprised by the lengths needed for Mildred to go through just to remain healthy.

Mildred nodded as she chewed on her rice meal with added vegetables including boiled potatoes. It was a plain and simple meal with nothing sweet, spicy or sour. The nurse had made sure the new diet didn't include anything that induced vomiting. Compared to the muck the other girls were forced to eat if they wanted to live through their time at the school, Mildred was having a feast even if her food looked unappetising.

Ever since that trip to the nurse's Mildred had been worried that the diet would end up making her sick, but so far she was vomiting quite a bit but at least she was doing it at night. It had become so bad she had needed to keep a bucket on hand in her room so she didn't have to leave her bedroom and risk being caught by HB. That was a good thing as well since she didn't want anyone to know about the projectile vomiting championship going on in her bedroom. She'd had to open the windows in her room just to ventilate the place to get rid of the stench. The problem was at times she'd had to leave her classes and puke in the toilets. The teachers hadn't liked it at first, but they'd quickly become concerned for her wellbeing, particularly since she wouldn't turn up again until the lessons were nearly over sometimes. The vomiting problem nearly made a public appearance when Mildred began retching in potions and it was dribbling down her face. Miss Hardbroom had quickly conjured a bucket and Mildred and been violently sick into it, for which she was eternally grateful since she didn't want all her classmates to be grossed out. It had been embarrassing and since then the teachers had allowed Mildred to leave their periods so long as they saw her to loos safely. Mildred was a little insulted they thought she might do a bunk. She wasn't that type of girl, in any case she wanted to be a witch badly and while she had improved over the last year she was still not the best witch in the class.

The teachers, who'd have berated Mildred in the past, were getting more and more concerned by the girl's appearance. Mildred glanced at her timetable to make sure her suspicion was correct, and she was over the moon when she found she had a free period.

"What is it?" Enid asked when she noticed the look on her best friend's face. Like Maud and the teachers, Enid was worried about Mildred, and wondered what was wrong with her.

"It's a free period," Mildred replied.

"Brilliant, what're you two up to doing?" Enid grinned with delight, but she was in for a disappointment. Ordinarily Mildred would've been with Enid in wanting to have fun, though Maud would probably have had them study, and while Mildred understood the logic behind the stances of her friends she knew what was appropriate and what wasn't.

But not today. Mildred's mind was on other things.

"Sorry Enid, you two go," Mildred said, "I've got to head to the library. There are a few things I want to study up for, and I might as well use the time since my grades aren't looking good."

It wasn't the best excuse but it was logical. Besides, she needed the library if she wanted to get to the root of the reason for her sickness; a suspicion was one thing, but it wasn't proof.

"Mildred, you're ill, the teachers understand that," Maud said, becoming very worried.

Mildred shook her head. "No, I need to do this. I don't want my grades to slip 'cause of me being sick."

"Do you want us to come?"

Mildred shook her head again, hoping to keep the urgency out of her body language. If she was right in her suspicions and her recent vomiting was a red flag in itself then she would tell her friends and the teachers what had happened to her over the summer, but for now she couldn't until she had positive proof of her symptoms. "No, it's best if I go myself. Thanks all the same."

After finishing her meal, Mildred grabbed her bag and left the hall. She paused outside the bathroom and glanced at the door. She swallowed, her fear getting to her. "Its what I think it is, isn't it?" she whispered before she shook her head and hurried off down to the library. A few seconds after she left, Miss Hardbroom appeared very close to the bathroom door, her dark eyes following the dark haired girl's retreating back. A second later she Magically Transported herself into Miss Cackle's office. Some of the teachers were already there - Miss Drill, Miss Bat, and Ada Cackle specifically - and they looked up at her as soon as she materialised. "Well?" Ada asked in concern.

"I followed her as far as the girl's toilets near the library," Miss Hardbroom reported. "I would have followed her, but she stopped outside the door and I assumed she'd go inside, but she didn't. Instead she whispered "It's what I think it is, isn't it?" Then she went on her way to the library."

"She's going to the library when she's got a free period?" Miss Drill looked surprised. "Most girls, Mildred included, don't go to the library during a free period."

"I know."

Miss Bat looked thoughtful. "She knows what's really wrong, or at least she suspects it," she muttered, concerned for the poor girl. "She knows the answer is in the library somewhere."

Ada shook her head softly. "I wish we could've found a better way than to spy on Mildred."

"We had no choice, especially after vomiting during my lesson," Miss Hardbroom winced at the memory as it coalesced in her mind.

 _Mildred was moaning and rocking on her stool in the potions lab, and she looked greenish_ grey _in the face. She hadn't been feeling too well for a day and a half since the Magical Transportation. But she had tried to ignore it, tried to restore some degree of normality to her life, but she was unsuccessful because she couldn't ignore the churning feeling in her stomach. Miss Hardbroom, remembering the Magical Transportation incident, went over to her when the girl raised her hand. "Yes, Mildred?"_

 _"Miss, I-I need to the toilet, quickly," the girl got out in a rush, "I think I'm going to be sick."_

 _Many of the girls near Mildred recoiled at her words, but the teacher and the girl in question ignored them. "How bad does it feel, Mildred?" The teacher asked when she took note of the girl's pallor, fingers prepared and ready in case Mildred had an accident right at that very moment._

 _Clearly annoyed by the_ questions but _holding it back, Mildred took a deep breath, "I_ 've been feeling _these pains for the last hour. But_ its _getting worse. I have to go now."_

 _Concerned for her student's_ wellbeing _and knowing enough of Magical Transportation nausea to know the sooner it was_ out the _better, Hecate Hardbroom said, "Alright Mildred, you may go-"_

 _Mildred clapped a hand to her mouth and choked and_ retched _, but a small amount of vomit leaked out through the gaps of her fingers. "Sweet Circe," Hecate said under her breath, flicking her fingers just in time to conjure a bucket because a deluge immediately came out as Mildred shoved her whole head into the bucket mouth and vomited._

 _"Ew, gross!"_

 _"Couldn't you have warned us, Mildred?"_

 _"Disgusting!"_

 _"Shut up you lot, it's_ _not like she wanted to puke, was it?" Maud snapped back at them, though Hecate could see that while the bespectacled girl was disgusted herself, she was more worried about her best friend. Hecate remembered when she had told the girl she had thought was Mildred but was in fact Maud, thanks to a switching spell, that Maud needed better_ friends but _now the two girls were in their third year at Cackles she knew she was wrong. Mildred Hubble had the best friends anyone could want._

 _"Quiet girls!" Hecate snapped at the class, instantly silencing them though inwardly she was disgusted by their lack of maturity and compassion towards their classmate. Hecate reached out hesitantly and ran her hand up and down Mildred's back. Her intention was to soothe the poor girl down, but Mildred didn't react the way Hecate had imagined. She shrieked in surprise at the touch, and recoiled so badly Hecate was scared she'd either lodge herself in so deep into the bucket she'd never be able to get it off her head, or she'd drown on her own vomit. The sudden shriek made Hecate leap back in shock._

 _"What's that, who's touching me?!"_

 _"It's only me, Mildred, I was just trying to soothe you," Miss Hardbroom said, hiding her trepidation and worry though everyone could see the concern written clearly on her face at Mildred's reaction. It was too violent a reaction for Hecate's tastes, and it made her wonder what the poor girl had been through to react in such a manner._

 _The girl relaxed slightly. "Sorry, miss," she muttered, but she couldn't say anything else because another wave of vomit came up from her stomach through her mouth._

 _While she vomited Hecate looked at the girl wondering what in the name of the Great Wizard would make Mildred Hubble react so violently._

Hecate shook her head as she tried to get the memory out of her mind. Ever since that day she had warned her fellow teachers about the problem, they'd allowed Mildred to leave for the toilets, but one or two of them kept a bucket in their classes in case she was too late to get out of the room. The problem had become too large for them to ignore, and so one or two of them asked questions, but Mildred didn't have any answers, and now it looked like she did know what the problem was.

"Hecate," Ada's voice brought her back to the present, "we're going to go to the library, could you cast the invisibility spell for us when we arrive? I think its time we learnt a bit more about our resident worst witch."

Then Ada shook her head. "I hate that title," she muttered.

Hecate inclined her head in agreement. The transportation spell was simple if you were an experienced witch or wizard, and so getting to the library doorway wasn't difficult. When they arrived, Hecate quickly cast an invisibility spell on them and they walked inside. There weren't that many students present in the library, so finding Mildred was straightforward. It was the section she was in that baffled and concerned them.

"Those books are about Magical Transportation. Why is she looking at them?" Miss Drill asked in confusion as they watched the girl study the spines of the books in the small section she was in.

"I don't think she plans to try it without our guidance," Miss Bat commented. "Mildred might be impulsive at times but she isn't that reckless."

Hecate shook her head. "No, that's not it. Her sickness was brought on by magical transportation, so she thinks the answer to a cure might be in one of those books."

The other teachers accepted the logic and wished they'd thought about it themselves, but they hadn't. But Hecate was quick to point out the flaw to that idea quickly. "But Mildred seems to know or suspects what the problem is, why doesn't she simply come to one of us to be sure?"

No one answered her question because they simply didn't know themselves. Mildred Hubble had become a mystery since the new year had begun, and they weren't sure what to make of it. The teachers were near enough to the girl to see that she was becoming impatient. Mildred was taking down book after book on Magical Transportation, and flicking through to check the contents and the indexes of each one, before she became frustrated because the books didn't have what she wanted to know.

Unaware of the spying teachers, Mildred continued looking through each of the Magical Transportation books she could find. The section wasn't really big, and most of them covered only the theory and practical applications of the magic along with the spells that allowed it. But Mildred wasn't interested in them since they were irrelevant for the time being, she would study it later when she was more experienced, but for the time being she simply didn't care.

Mildred had studied a few of the magical maladies lists and tried to find something that explained her illness with it being…..that, but she was sure it was what she thought it was. None of the books she'd found had described something, anything, that followed the symptoms she had at the moment. Sure, one of the books detailing sicknesses brought on by Magical Transportation had described the nausea, it hadn't taken into account her other symptoms like fatigue which lasted for a long time. Mildred was disappointed when she'd read that the nurse's diagnosis of it being a simple flu was wrong, completely wrong. Flu like symptoms from Magical transportation did occur, yes, but they lasted only a few hours, or well into the night, but they didn't last more than 24 hours.

Mildred had read that part with frustrated dread. She had come into the library fully prepared to study the magical transportation books and find out from them if she was right, but she couldn't resist looking at the malady books and find out from them if her worst fears were just a product of her overactive imagination. Finally she picked out the massive book on Magical Transportation. It was called "Transportation facts and myths."

Deciding this was the only option she had left, Mildred opened the book and flicked through to the index, found what she was looking for and she flicked through the pages to where she wanted to be.

As her eyes scanned the paragraph, her eyes widened and she gulped. The spying teachers heard her whisper to herself. "Please god, no." She closed the book, picked up her bag and headed out of the library again.

"Shall I take down the spell, Ada?" Hecate whispered.

"No, I want to see where she's going now," Ada Cackle replied. "Did anyone see where in the book she was reading?"

"No. Her back was in the way. I couldn't see it, whatever it was, it must have been bad."

Ada sighed. "Pity, it could have cleared up this mystery. Come on, we need to follow her."

Following Mildred wasn't difficult, keeping up with the girl was. It was strange just how fast Mildred was on the ground when she was usually so clumsy, so Ada and the other teachers struggled to keep up. Although she was invisible and silent, Ada was able to see the lost and stricken expression on the girl's face, and her heart ached at the sight of it.

It soon became obvious Mildred was heading up to her bedroom, though why was anyone's guess since the free period was nearly over, but she was stopped.

"Hello, Mildred," Ethel Hallow stood blocking her way with Drusilla Paddock by her 'friends' side.

Mildred sighed. "Please, Ethel, not now, please. I'm not in the mood, we can go through this tomorrow," she pleaded. She tried to step past Ethel and Drusilla, but Ethel wouldn't let her. "No, not until you tell me what really happened to you. Did your mother finally get tired of you and tell you that you're a waste of space? We both know its true, Mildred Hubble."

Ada Cackle was tempted, really tempted, to cancel the spell around her that stopped her being invisible and stop this. She like many of the teachers knew that Mildred and Julie Hubble loved each other, and they knew Julie would never harm her child.

The look on Mildred's face was terrifying, and it showed when Ethel and Drusilla stepped back, but Ethel couldn't keep her mouth shut. "What happened Mildred? We have a right to know."

"No, you don't," Mildred got out and she threw her hands out, and green smoke erupted around the two girls. Their skin turned green and smooth to the touch and suddenly the transformation took place and they changed into frogs. Mildred looked down on them both and headed off. Hecate flicked her invisible fingers and reversed the spell. Normally it was ideal for the witch who performed the transformation spell to reverse it since it was their magic, but another witch performing the spell wasn't a problem. Unable to believe their good luck, the two girls went off.

"Jumped up Hubble-Bubble," Ethel snapped as they stormed off down the corridor. "I'll get her back and find out what she's really hiding."

Hiding her concern and worry, Ada ushered the teachers towards Mildred's room and they entered. Mildred wasn't sitting on the bed, or the chair by her rickety desk, she was just standing in front of the window. She turned around and leaned against the wall and slid down, breaking out into sobs that she'd been holding back since that recent confrontation with Ethel outside in the corridor.

"No, god no. Why? Why me?" She got out as she burst out sobbing. "Why did that…..bastard do it? You bastard, why? Damn you, damn you all the way to hell!"

None of the teachers watching knew what to say. None of them had ever heard Mildred Hubble swear before, use profanity like what they were hearing her say, so they had no idea what to make of what they were hearing.

"I can't do it, I just can't," Mildred said and dropped her face into her palms and sobbed her heart out, and she lay there where she was sitting and she didn't say another word.

The teachers returned to the Headmistress's office and returned to visibility again, only now they were more worried since they had left Mildred's room with more questions than answers. They were concerned not just with what Mildred had found out in that book in the library after going through the other books on Magical Transportation and clearly finding what she was after, but being upset about it, seeing her stricken face as she'd headed back to her room, how she'd reacted to Ethel's callous remarks about Julie Hubble. But it was her crying fit that really concerned and worried the teachers, particularly since it was becoming clear the attack had done more to Mildred than they suspected.

"We can't go on like this," Ada began, "its becoming increasingly obvious something more than what she's saying happened to her on the night of the attack, something so serious that she's become ill during Magical transportation."

"She's obviously ashamed by what's happened to her," Algernon looked stricken when he heard the news of what had happened. "What can we do?"

"We need to find out what happened," Hecate said. "If Mildred won't tell us, maybe Julie Hubble will." The potions mistress raised her hand, preparing to bring the woman to them, but Ada quickly stopped her. "No, Hecate," she said, "not now. Lessons will soon be resuming in a few minutes and you don't have a free period afterwards. I don't think she appreciated being brought here before, so you'll have to go to her."

Hecate didn't like the sound of that, but she nodded regardless. "Very well, Headmistress," she inclined her head, preparing herself mentally for the encounter - she and Julie Hubble had clashed in the past because of the way she (Hecate) had treated and viewed Mildred, but truthfully the potions mistress respected the woman. But she was worried about what she would hear about what happened to Mildred from her.

* * *

Dressed in her usual witch attire and casting an invisibility spell over herself, Hecate transported herself to the block of flats Mildred and her mother lived in. She arrived outside the door, guessing correctly that the woman wouldn't appreciate her just popping into her flat without permission. Cancelling the invisibility spell, and looking left and right in case someone appeared Hecate knocked on the door.

"Just a minute," Julie's voice muffled thanks to the door came back, and there was the sound of locks as Julie came to the door. There was a ready smile on Julie's face, but it dimmed slightly when she caught sight of the black clad witch standing in front of her. "Miss Hardbroom, what're you doing here?"

"We need to talk, its about Mildred."

Julie let out a breath and she bit her lip, and her eyes started filling with tears and the witch knew it wasn't going to be good. "How is she? No, wait…..You'd better come in before someone sees you," she added.

Raising an eyebrow at the woman's haphazard manner, Hecate allowed herself to be taken inside the small flat. The place was a mix of disorderly and clean, it was kind of typical of the Hubble family. There were pictures, all hand drawn by Mildred stuck to the wall, and there were photographs of Julie and a younger version of Mildred near a computer.

Hecate picked one of them up, seeing that it was Mildred wearing the Cackles' uniform. Seeing that girl's smile and her long hair made Hecate realise she hadn't really seen such a wide smile on the child's face for a long time, and it made her yearn to see it again. She quickly noticed the plate with a half eaten meal on it, and she turned to Julie. "I'm sorry, you're in the middle of your meal-" Hecate apologised but Julie waved her hand.

"It's okay, I haven't been to eat much for a while, especially after what happened to Mildred," Julie waved it off, but she closed her eyes and tears trickled down her face. It took a minute for her to get over herself. "Why are you here, has something happened to Mildred?"

"I was about to ask you that. Mildred's been acting strangely. I am here to find out why."

Julie looked at her for a second before she took a deep breath. "She hasn't told you has she? You don't know, do you?" she whispered, and then she laughed angrily. "You don't know what happened to my daughter."

Surprised by the hysterics, Hecate closed her eyes and tried to control her temper. She didn't like the assumption she and the other teachers were supposed to be aware of every little thing that happened to Mildred Hubble, particularly when it happened outside school. The staff at Cackles were not miracle workers, they couldn't be responsible for everything that happened to the children. "What happened to her? Please, Miss Hubble, tell me what's happened to her. Is it something to do with the attack?"

Julie bit her lip and nodded, breaking down into choked sobs. "Is that what she's calling it? It wasn't what I would term as an attack. What happened to her Miss Hardbroom was an act of savagery you'd think we'd have moved past by now. Yes. I think I'd better make some tea, you'll need it to steady your nerves."

Hecate waited for Julie to finish making the tea and she brought it out for her, along with some milk and sugar, and sat on the couch. "First I want you to tell me how Mildred's been recently."

The next ten minutes passed with Hecate giving Julie an account of what had been going on at Cackles - the way Mildred had been lashing out towards Felicity and Ethel, being evasive about the faded bruising on her face, the way she refused to talk about the attack. Miss Hardbroom also told Julie about the sickness brought on by the magical transportation, and the single mother became more concerned and worried. "And you're sure magical transportation doesn't usually bring on symptoms like this after becoming used to it?" Julie asked.

"Occasionally the witch will feel disorientated, but never to this extent, and besides Mildred has been transported before and she's never reacted this badly, not even during her first time," Hecate replied. "But what has happened to her?"

Julie put down her cup and started at the liquid inside it. "I still can't believe Mildred hasn't said a word," she whispered, still staring into her cup before looking back up, "but I guess I should tell you."

* * *

After being woken up by Maud, Mildred had woken up the next morning in a more or less bright mood - she might have omitted a few times during the night, but overall she'd managed to get a few good hours sleep. Getting dressed she joined her friends in the hall for breakfast, and they settled down on the bench, just chatting before Ethel Hallow approached.

"Well, if it isn't the cowardly freak of Cackles' Academy," she said loudly, silencing the hall who turned to find out what the latest entertainment was. Delighting in the attention she was receiving, Ethel smirked as she walked closer to Mildred, who looked at her with dark and tired eyes. "Ethel, if you don't want to be turned back into a frog, maybe its a good idea if you erm left me alone?" Mildred suggested.

"No, not until I find out what everyone wants to know, Mildred Hubble," Ethel replied, looking at her coldly like an angry Queen looking down on her subjects who had done something to displease her. "Everyone wants to know. Look around you."

Mildred did so and saw that Ethel was right. There was curiosity on dozens of faces, but there was also trepidation on others - they weren't going to say or do anything about what Ethel was doing.

"I know, I've looked. I don't want to talk about it," Mildred tried to sound strong, but her voice was beginning to shake as she remembered that night for what seemed the hundredth time. Unfortunately Ethel took her shaky voice differently, and capitalised on it.

"You see," Ethel turned triumphantly towards the rest of the school, a smirk on her face even as the teachers appeared to find out what was happening, "the girl that stopped Agatha Cackle three times in the first year, who won us the Spelling Bee competition, helped me get my cat back from the Mists of Time is nothing more than a coward."

"Ethel, shut up," Mildred ground out as Maud and Enid prepared to go on the defensive even though they wanted to know what it was their friend was hiding. "Please, leave me alone."

"I think your mother attacked you, I think you're making it all up for attention."

"No, I'm not," Mildred shouted, instantly defending her only parent, "my mother took me to hospital after I was attacked. Leave me alone!" Tears were pouring from the girl's eyes now.

"Ethel, enough," Miss Hardbroom snapped, but Ethel was too drunk with the power she now had over Mildred to care. "So you're so pathetic to wait for the teachers to help you, Mildred?"

Maud stood up, deciding enough was enough. She wanted her best friend to tell what really happened as well, but she knew this was not the way to go through with it. "Ethel, stop it. She doesn't want to talk about it," she said, glancing at the teachers and saw their grim and horrified features, and she realised they had found out what had happened to Mildred, but they were too shaken to say what it was, not that they would. Right at that moment they looked shocked by what was happening in the hall, either they were too shaken to stop it or they didn't know what to say.

Ethel sneered. "And Maud fatty speaks in your defence, Mildred. If you're so brave then you'd talk. Why? What's so terrible for you that you can't tell us about what happened to you!

"Shut up, please!" Mildred cried out, tears dropping from her eyes.

"No," Ethel's eyes glinted malevolently, and she grabbed Mildred's upper arms.

"Let go of me!"

"No, you little coward. You're going to admit what really happened that night-"

"Ethel," Ada Cackle snapped out of the shock that had gripped her and her colleagues, fingers raised to prepare a spell, "enough is enough-"

Mildred had certainly had enough.

"HE RAPED ME! HE RAPED ME!" Mildred screamed through her tears, her scream dropping to a low shout with the repeat, and then collapsed crying.

Ethel's grip on Mildred went slack and she staggered back away from her school enemy, but she never took her eyes off her dark haired schoolmate. It was obvious the girl hadn't expected something like rape, but Mildred simply didn't care what Ethel thought. "What?" she squeaked out.

Mildred glared at her through her tears, anger surging through her very body, and she shook with rage. Her emotions must have been visible, because Ethel and the others stepped back and recoiled. "You heard me! Don't pretend you didn't, you've been driving me near insane for days, cornering me in the corridors, jeering at me, nagging me, insulting my mum who was the first person I told," she snapped. "Don't tell me you've gone deaf in the last 5 seconds! You want to know what happened, all of you?" Mildred glared wildly around the hall at the horrified faces of the other girls. "I'll tell you."

"Mildred-" Enid said timidly, taken aback by the horrifying news, but Mildred ignored her and stood up and walked around the table to the window so she could have some space. She was shaking and breathing hard from holding back her temper, but as she stood by the window she took a moment to calm down - losing her temper now would not help her get through this. But Mildred was human, and she instinctively wanted to shout and rage about it.

When she spoke it was like she was speaking to herself, and Maud's heart broke at the sound of the detached, faraway voice Mildred was speaking with, when she realised the girl she had met on that day of the entrance exam, the girl who'd floundered with her and laughed with her in the pond on the grounds, had been broken, and she cursed Ethel Hallow and the others. She cursed the bastard who'd raped and tortured Mildred Hubble, one of the nicest people Maud had ever met.

"Everything happened so fast. Like I said I'd gone out with some friends - we'd known each other since primary school, but I'd lost touch with them when I was admitted into Cackles, though truthfully we were completely different even before I became a student here; they had different interests to me, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is I wanted to spend to time with them. I went out with them, and I was introduced to gin - I only had a few shots just to try it out, but in the clarity I realised my friendship with them was so badly deteriorated to be saved, and I was upset about it. They were more interested in their boyfriends, or finding new ones while I was there, and I decided I had better friends in Maud and Enid, Esme and Sybil and others," Mildred recounted, her voice scared them since it sounded so quiet.

All of the girls mentioned felt humbled by Mildred's words but they also felt ashamed they hadn't done more to stop Ethel going for Mildred and revealing this terrible news.

"I decided to head home on my own - it was a stupid decision since the alcohol made me a bit dopey, but I was still aware enough to know how dangerous some of the shortcuts home were. I'm not stupid - I knew there was no lighting in those shortcuts, back alleyways, anyone could have been hiding there, waiting for someone to walk down, alone in the dark, it just didn't make any difference," Mildred took a deep breath as she came to the first of the really traumatic parts of the story, for her the entire story was traumatic but the beginning was worse; like ripping off a band aid, the sooner she got this over and done with the better. "I was only ten minutes away from the block of flats my mum and I live in when I noticed this figure coming towards me, striding into the light under a lamp post, a man in a hoodie…."

* * *

Mildred was exhausted after her long trek through town, the gin she'd drunk had made her a bit lightheaded but she retained enough awareness to walk home, but not enough to be unaware of what was going on around her - she'd heard all kinds of descriptive stories of drunk people acting like animals from a zoo that had escaped. It was with great relief when she came close to the block of flats on the estate she and her mum lived in, because she could have a quick wash and have a drink of water to clear her head of the throbbing in her skull.

As she walked closer she noticed someone walking her way, a figure wearing a hoodie. It was clearly a man or a boy her age, but Mildred was paying him no mind, she was fixed on returning home. As the distance between them finally closed, Mildred caught a whiff of his BO, but she walked on…..

* * *

"It was so dark I couldn't see his face under his hood, but he seemed to ignore me as we walked past each other so I didn't pay him any attention…"

* * *

Passing the man, Mildred continued walking - only to yelp in agony when she felt a hand wrap itself around her ponytail and pull her back, and she managed to crane her head back. It was the man she had just passed, only he hadn't kept walking on. Now he was holding onto her hair, tugging her back, and she felt him wrap his hand around her ponytail again drawing her closer.

* * *

"I felt him adjust his grip on my hair twice, dragging me closer to him…"

* * *

Mildred began to panic when she realised what this man could do to her, and she forgot for a moment that she was a witch and could easily transform this man into a frog, or a slug. She started to scream, hoping to call for help, but he quickly slapped her in the face with a blow that felt more like a whack from a cricket bat, and then he punched her in the gut. She bent over, wheezing as the air in her lungs escaped.

* * *

"Once he'd punched me in the gut, he had little trouble dragging me away from the path. I was still breathless from the punch, but I was aware he was leading me through a clump of bushes. I just couldn't fight him off, though I tried to wriggle free and was even willing to sacrifice some of my hair. It was hopeless, his grip was too tight. And then he threw me to the ground."

* * *

The smell of grass wafted through Mildred's nostrils as the guy just threw her like a broken doll to the ground, but he still had a strong grip on her hair. She tried to struggle, but he quickly got on top of her, weighing her down so she couldn't move. Mildred, already breathless from the punch to her gut, wheezed even more as she felt the man's weight on her back as he pushed her into the ground.

* * *

In the present time, Mildred let tears trickle down her face as she remembered how hopeless it was in the beginning. "I couldn't see anything, it was so dark, and I couldn't see him. But I could hear him, feel his presence. The most terrifying thing was feeling him pressing down on my back. I couldn't breathe," she took a deep breath and looked around at the horrified faces of the other girls, Esme Hallow was holding onto Sybil and a first year who looked close to breaking down into tears, both girls were looking at Mildred would expressions that broke the older girls heart - Mildred recognised the red hair of Melissa, the first year girl from a non magical family. Mildred hated the fact the first years had to hear about this, but it was too late to send them out since Ethel had made it impossible for her to have any room to get it all out, so the first year girls would have to listen to all of this hell. So she went ahead with her story. "I tried screaming, hoping he'd get spooked by the noise, or someone would come running. At first I thought someone was bound to come, but no one did. His weight was like a dozen bags of wet sand holding me down on the ground. And then I felt him wriggle on top of me, like he was trying to get comfortable on my back. I decided that was the best time to try and cast a spell. I just wanted to get free, I wanted to get out, get home and ring the police…"

* * *

Mildred bit her lip in pain as he wriggled on top of her, the way his knuckles and fingers were digging into her back and skin made her feel like a horse with clawed hooves was giving her a back massage. She had to escape from this, and she felt this was the best as ever to cast a spell to get him off. An image of him turning into a slug, hopeless and unable to speak to another human being appealed to her, and since she would have no intention of turning him back into a human being the chances of him returning to human form were limited, and the chances of him dying before he encountered another witch was even more remote. Mildred had never wished anyone's death before but for this guy she'd wish it a thousand times over if she had to, if she could just get free….

Using the opportunity, she chanted in her mind and flicked her hands in his general direction. Mildred had improved with her spell casting ability over the last year, and she was reasonably confident she could cast this one, her life depended on it after all - too bad it was literally, "Slimy body, slimy trail, turn this man into a slimy-" But the man, seeing the movement, slapped her hard at the back of her head. Stars exploded in Mildred's vision, making it hard to think, and her concentration when casting the spell was broken. The pain in her head made her wonder if her attacker had just given her a concussion, and she moaned in pain. Even through the pain she was aware of the man shifting himself on her back, but she was still stunned so she couldn't move or take awareness of what was going on around her. She knew it was not over.

The way she'd been stunned senseless gave the man the opportunity to bind her hands. He got on top of her again, lying down on her firmly this time. When her head no longer felt like someone had blown up a potion in her skull Mildred became aware of how her hands were being belted to thin sapling. She tried to tug her hands back hopelessly in reflex, hoping to get clear, but she couldn't escape. The belt around her hands was too tight, Mildred was beginning to fear it would cut off her circulation…..

* * *

"While I was struggling with the sapling, he shoved something in my mouth and put something like a sack over my head…"

* * *

Whatever it was that was being forced into her mouth, it was round and large and stopped her from closing her mouth, but it didn't stop Mildred from letting out as much noise as she could. She must have made enough noise to disturb her attacker because he shifted his weight and pressed his backside down on her lungs until it felt like she was being crushed by a hydraulic press. The sounds coming from her mouth became muffled, and she was finding it harder to get air into her lungs.

Mildred was getting so out of it she was barely aware of something coming down over her head, but it didn't cover the whole of it because she felt the man holding onto her hair again - she hadn't even noticed him letting go. Once he was finished, she heard a sound that made her shake harder despite the pain of him on his chest.

It was a belt being unbuckled and then she heard a zipper being pulled down.

* * *

Shaking a little, Mildred paused as she looked around the hall, noticing the tears in the eyes of Miss Cackle as if she were hearing of her own granddaughter being raped and abused in such a brutal manner. Maud and Enid were looking at her with tears in their eyes, shaking their heads in horror over what she was going through, reciting this because of Ethel. She glanced at Miss Hardbroom and she saw the look of total heartbreak on her face. But there was something else - she didn't look surprised. Mildred realised she'd known this already. How -? Then she realised the truth. Her mum. HB must have spoken to her mother already.

She sighed and looked down as she carried on. "I could feel him moving on my back again, but this time I knew what he was doing; he was slipping his trousers off while he was holding me down. I could hear him panting in excitement. Next he went for mine.."

* * *

As she heard him unzip his trousers, Mildred became even more desperate to escape even with him pinning her down and the belt which tied her hands to the sapling. Her desperate attempts to get free somehow amused the man, because she could feel him shaking in silent laughter. The idea this sick monster was holding her down, preparing to rape her, finding her struggles to get free amusing made her angry. But then the laughter was gone, and he got off her back, and now pinned her hips down. She felt him running a hand over her still clothed back before she felt his hands go to her trousers. Mildred tried to struggle, but she knew it was futile, but he didn't care since he suddenly got off her, and he pulled her back up so he could easily take her trousers off. Once her trousers were down to her ankles she felt him rip her knickers off , she tried screaming through her gag again he used his knees to drive her legs apart, and he slapped her head again to stop her struggling again. But it was a minor tap to the last one so she recovered more quickly, and she froze when she felt something at her rear entrance.

* * *

Mildred closed her eyes. "And then he shoved himself inside me." Tears poured down her cheeks as she remembered the pain she went through there.

* * *

Her mum Julie had given her a few lectures about sex - Cackles may have been an all girl's school, but her story about that competition with Pentangles had given her an excuse to talk to her daughter about boys, but nothing could have prepared Mildred for the harsh reality; her mum had described how pleasurable it was for women to have sex once the woman was prepared, but this experience was anything but pleasurable for her. The penis shoving into her, tearing into her flesh, ripping away through her virginity, not giving her time to adjust to his size and definitely not caring about how she felt about it he pulled back and shoved himself back in, this time he went deeper into her making her scream through the gag in pain. Again and again he shoved into her, panting like a rabid dog in excitement as the grip he had on her tightened, one hand firmly holding onto her hip and the other pulling her head back thanks to her own ponytail, hurting her neck.

* * *

"Again and again he shoved himself into me, making noises an animal would make. I tried struggling which each move he made, but with the grip he had on my hair and on my hip I couldn't move. The grip on my hip was the worst - it felt like my skin and bone was being pinched by a vice. I thought it would never end. I tried shouting through the gag, but I couldn't make a sound. He didn't like that. Not. One. Little. Bit. He slapped my back, leaving stinging marks all over that left bruises in the shape of hand marks. Don't ask me why, I haven't got a clue why he'd do that. I genuinely thought I was going to die. And then…he climaxed inside me, " Mildred closed her eyes before going on, "He pulled himself out, but he didn't go away. He moved his hands up through my shirt, underneath my bra, and he squeezed my breasts so hard it made me scream again. I cried through whatever it was on my head, it felt some sort of cloth, and I could him shaking with laughter at what I was going through. It was great big joke to him, and it made angry that he was enjoying what he was doing. I remember thinking 'Why me? Why did he choose me?' It was selfish of me, 'cause I knew he would have raped someone else, and it made me sick I would even think of something like that, but I couldn't help myself. Part of human nature, really."

Mildred took a deep breath, turned around and looked out of the window of the hall, out onto the grounds. It was better than looking at the faces of everyone in the hall, she was getting tired of their tears, their pity. "He did this three more times before he finally stopped. I won't bore you with the details - I think you can all imagine, and besides they were practically no different from the first time. He laughed again when he heard me sobbing the last time. He did it silently so I couldn't hear the sound of his voice - whoever he was, whether or not he'd done it before, he was smart I'll give you that. Because I definitely would tell the police about the sound of his voice. Anyway I could feel the vibration through my backside. And then he stopped and I heard him stand up - when your eyes are covered completely, your senses compensate. My hearing was a godsend, I can tell you. I heard him zip up his trousers again, and he then ripped whatever was on my head off and then he tore what was gagging me out of my mouth. I could see again, my mouth was free, but I was breathing hard, sobbing. Next he was untying my hands, but before he left he kicked me in the legs. It was like someone clubbing them, then he walked off leaving there on the ground. I was lying there, in the dark, alone, hopeless and helpless, half naked."

* * *

Mildred was shaking. She was in shock over what had just happened to her, the air getting to her legs letting her know this was not a dream. It was real. It had really happened. She could feel the residual pain between her legs, but she was still out of it. Then her mind returned with the full force of what had happened to her. She took deep breaths, trying to keep herself calm, but she lost the battle and started screaming. She overheard screams from all around in their nice safe flats, shouting at her to shut up.

She stopped when she realised no one was coming to see what had happened to her, no one cared. That no one gave a damn about someone screaming in pain and agony made Mildred wish a meteor dropped onto Earth because at that point nothing could save the goodness she knew existed within the human race. Crying still, Mildred stood up shakily, gasping and then crying out in pain wondering if the kicks had fractured her leg bones, but she tripped over her trouser legs, and she fell to the ground again. Mildred was amazed she was still alive even as she got up, pulled up her trousers up and walked shakily back to the flat. The attack and the resultant rape had upset her centre of balance, so it took her a few minutes to stop wobbling about on her legs. By the time she was heading back to the flat and walked through the entrance, she checked to make sure the lifts hadn't broken down again. She wasn't sure she could take the long climb back up to the flat in her current state, but she was hoping the lift would be empty otherwise she wasn't sure what would happen. Sure, not everyone was a raping opportunist, but she wasn't in the mood for one of the neighbours that she tolerated with the same 'oh, not again' attitude when she encountered Ethel and had to deal with the blond's haughty manner at school.

To her relief she found that the lifts were still in the same shape they'd been in when she'd left the flat, but she still cursed the fact she had to use the damn things in the first place, just like she wished she and her mum lived on the ground floor. After getting into the lift and making sure no one else was inside it, Mildred pressed the floor number and leaned against the wall, shaking with exhaustion and adrenaline. It seemed to take forever for the lift to go up to her floor, and Mildred was dreading it as the numbers went up and up, thinking someone was going to call for her lift or she was going to be stuck inside it because it had broken down again, but it was the thought of someone stopping the lift, coming inside and then seeing the state of her appearance that bothered her - she didn't want others to know about her business, why should she? But when the lift stopped and the doors opened she was still alone.

Staggering out of the lift, Mildred headed over to her front door. She started hammering on the door - she had the key, yeah, but she wanted to wake her mother up now so by the time she opened up she would be more awake than she would have been if Mildred had desperately shaken her awake in her bed. The fear that the noise would also wake up the neighbours occurred to her, but after the way she'd been told to shut up outside after she'd screamed herself hoarse after being raped, Mildred had stopped caring.

It worked as well. Mildred could hear her mother on the other side of the door. "Okay, okay, I'm coming," her mother's voice called out hoarsely from the other side of the door. "Hold on.." The door was unlocked and the smiling, though tired face of Julie Hubble appeared in the doorway, wrapped in a yellow dressing gown. The smile disappeared when Julie found her crying daughter outside. "Mildred, what's happened? Why…..Mildred, where did you get that bruise on your face?" Julie asked scared and worried.

Mildred lightly pressed down her fingers around her face, and found the bruise she hadn't even known it was there, but she was still crying. The sight of her mother brought a sense of relief to the teenager. "Mum," she sobbed, "I've…..I've been raped!"

A faraway look of horror appeared in Julie's eyes. "What did you say?" she whispered.

"I've been raped," Mildred sobbed, and then she simply couldn't stop. "I couldn't stop him. I tried to get out from underneath him, I tried casting a spell, but he smacked me so hard I was knocked senseless-" she couldn't say anymore, she broke down sobbing.

A primal, pained cry from her mother shut Mildred up instantly. Julie's arms shot out and brought her daughter into a firm but gentle hug, and they both stepped into the flat. "Tell me what happened, Mildred," Julie ordered.

Mildred was only too glad to speak.

* * *

"I told my mother everything about what happened. After I'd told her about the rape, she immediately phoned the police and told them about it. The police came round, asked some questions, and then they took me off for a semen sample to be removed and identified, if the rapist was on file. They haven't caught him yet, so he's either waiting for his next attack, or he's a first timer who's gotten cold feet. He was well prepared for the rape, he knew he would rape someone that night. It made no difference to him if he was attacking a 13 year old girl or not. They medically checked me out to see if I'd suffered any long term injuries after being kicked and punched, thankfully there weren't any. All I had were bruises from the blows," Mildred closed her eyes. "I must have gone over the story half a dozen times with the police, always making sure I never told them about my attempt to turn him into a slug of course - I knew they wouldn't believe me. It took a few times, but I eventually realised that part of him being well prepared, but I decided to let the police worry about it - they're supposed to be the detectives, so I would let them detect. It's their job after all."

Mildred pulled away from the window and was just resisting the urge to slide all the way down and sit on the floor. She just wanted to sit down. She was tired of standing up, but she didn't move. But she couldn't look around the hall either, so with eyes closed she carried on with the story. She was near the end so that was something to be happy about.

"I was a nervous wreck, for 8 agonising days. I couldn't leave my flat. I would always double lock the door so I could feel safe after mum left to go to work. I was so scared, so humiliated that I told my mum not to say a word, but it didn't matter - I didn't have that many friends in the neighbourhood - they were all into themselves, and I also told the police if they released the news of a 13 year old girl being raped that my name wasn't to be mentioned. I wanted to be left alone. It took 10 days for me to muster the courage to walk down the hall, back to the lift, and down to the ground floor and out again. So yeah, I was a coward, like you so eloquently described me as, so congratulations, Ethel," Mildred humourlessly clapped her hands in a mocking manner as she sneered at the girl who called herself her enemy, "you've gotten one over on me. Well done."

Ethel opened her mouth, to say she didn't believe Mildred was a coward, but Sybil stopped her. Ethel looked at her younger sister and saw Sybil's eyes were red with tears.

Mildred hadn't noticed a thing about the exchange. To her it may or may not have happened in the first place. "I decided to have my hair cut really short. I didn't want the next attacker to have an easier time, grabbing my hair and yanking it all out to just hold me down."

The idea Mildred would be afraid of another rapist didn't surprise the teachers, but it horrified them nonetheless. "I still had bruising on my face, and some on my legs, but my socks hid it. Every time I saw it afterwards, I'd break down and cry," Mildred was running out of things to tell them, but then she found the perfect piece de resistance. She'd give it in a moment. "I just wanted to return to school to help me take my mind off what had happened, and I wanted to try to see the world the way I'd seen it before - even before I became a student here, I knew how dangerous it could be out there, but now it was worse. I was seeing rapists everywhere. I always tried to avoid guys, boys, blokes everywhere I saw them. I was even terrified of you, Mr Rowan-Webb." The Wizard teacher felt his insides chill, having not expected Mildred including him in the horrible story, and it made him feel ashamed of being a man, but since hearing the story, seeing the way this poor girl who had saved him from a life of living as a frog because Gullet was a selfish and incompetent fool who couldn't get a different job had transformed him was crying her eyes out, Algernon had wanted to castrate himself. "I was frightened that they and you would see me as vulnerable - I don't want to hear it, I was stupid, I know that, but at least you know why I've been a scared rabbit in your classes. I just want to go back to how I was before, but that's impossible now. I was raped, yeah, but its worse."

Mildred looked down at her stomach, and lightly ran a hand over it. Fresh tears flooded her eyes - it amazed her she still even had tears left after telling the story. "When I fell sick because of Magical Transportation, I knew it wasn't a flu; the nurse was wrong, I've been transported so many times, but it was something else. Much worse."

She looked up and saw a look of dawning comprehension in their faces, but she went on. She had to get it out.

"I went to the library. I checked the magical maladies section, but it was useless - those symptoms could describe so many illnesses, but I needed to check to make sure anyway. After finding nothing I went through the Magical Transportation books. I flicked through the indexes hoping to find what I was looking for. The transportation section in the library is small. It took five minutes to find the right book, and it gave my symptoms perfectly, and I read the section…" She closed her eyes as she remembered the paragraph she'd read; Mildred didn't have a photographic memory, but the words had nonetheless been burnt into her brain…

* * *

"Magical Transportation is one of the most dangerous magical arts to learn, and when it is first experienced by a novice who has never been transported before, and they will expect to experience side effects such as dizziness and nausea as the body is shifted from one place to another. This wears off quickly for the novice and it gets easier to cope with over time. But transportation is not recommended if the person is pregnant. Transportation during pregnancy is especially dangerous for the witch, it cause dizziness, nausea and bring on symptoms not yet experienced. If that person isn't already aware of the pregnancy, or if the witch is in the early stages of pregnancy, the symptoms of pregnancy will begin to appear. This is because the body being shifted from one place to another has altered the balance inside the mother's body…."

* * *

"I'm pregnant," Mildred said to everyone's surprise, though some of them had realised what she was about to say before she'd said it. "Or at least I think I'm pregnant. My symptoms were brought on by the Transportation spell. I've been dreading the prospect since I was attacked - he used no contraception, no condom, he didn't care if he emptied himself into me or not. I didn't tell my mother, I think she already knew. I was planning on asking her to smuggle a pregnancy test into the school during Parents Evening so we could see from there if I was pregnant; okay, I might be jumping the gun by thinking I am, but I'm so sure of it."

Mildred needed a moment to compose herself but she stood up straight and tried to look calm even though she guessed she looked rough after telling them the tale of what had happened to her that night. She didn't care anymore. "But I'm still not sure if I am pregnant. Is there a spell that detects pregnancy?"

Ada nodded, unable to find the right words.

"Can you cast it, please? I just want to get it over and done with." The dead look in Mildred's eyes scared many of the staff, it was a far cry from the girl's usual cheerful demeanour.

Ada lifted her fingers. "If you are pregnant, Mildred, the light will turn green. If you're not pregnant it will turn red."

Mildred nodded hoping against all logical argument that it did turn red. Ada cast the spell and Mildred's body was surrounded by white light. There was no colour change for a minute, and then it turned green.

Mildred looked down at her feet, shaking as more tears came to her eyes, not really caring what people thought of her not wanting the baby. It was one thing to be sure, one thing to have dreaded the first symptoms of pregnancy, but confirming it was worse.

"I can't deal with this," she said, looking up and letting everyone see the broken expression on her face. "I'd like to be excused for the rest of the day so I can be left alone. Please."

It was more of a demand than a plea. Ada looked reluctant but she nodded. "Of course, Mildred," she said, "but if you want-" Ada couldn't say anymore because the dark haired girl had grabbed her bag and headed out of the Great Hall.

"Mildred-" Ada called, but it was half hearted since Mildred ignored her, and clearly just wanted to be left alone. After what Hecate had told her after learning about it from Julie Hubble, and having Mildred having to talk about the rape after Ethel had forced her into a corner, Ada decided to let the girl have her peace.

She looked around at the devastated girls in the hall, and she sighed. When Hecate had told her and the rest of the teachers about what had happened to Mildred, she had rushed to the hall hoping to take her to the office to inform her that she knew, but clearly that was not possible anymore.

"Why did you make her go through that Ethel?" Maud Spellbody's voice broke through the silence, and the headmistress glanced at Ethel Hallow, who looked devastated. It was a far cry from the arrogant girl who'd tormented Mildred, but Ada felt no pretty for her.

"I-I didn't know it was that bad," Ethel said looking around the hall pleadingly, but unlike with Mildred none of the girls were giving her any pity even those who had wanted to know the details of the attack on Mildred since they hadn't imagined or even suspected the details were so horrifying, "I-I-I thought that-"

Ada had had enough of Ethel Hallow's arrogance for one day. "I don't care what you thought, Ethel," she interrupted glaring at the girl angrily, but she was more angry with herself and with the other teachers because they had heard what had happened to Mildred but they hadn't done anything to mitigate the worst of this, "you had no right to poke your nose into someone else's private business, especially if they were attacked. To my office, now! Miss Hardbroom, could you go after Mildred since you knew about the rape beforehand? Make sure she's alright. Girls, get to your lessons, please."

Ada looked down at her feet. Why, of all the thing to have happened to Mildred, did it have to be rape? This sort of crime was not one Ada enjoyed having to deal with. No teacher liked having to deal with rape crimes. While the Cackle's students were more than protected behind the walls and the gates and the spells cast over the school, the same could not be said for them outside when they left for the school holidays. In her time, Ada had had to deal with the aftermaths of students who had been raped in the past, and her mother Alma Cackle had dealt with several over the years. When Ada had become Headmistress of the Academy, and she had dealt with the first rape she had gone to her mother, retired, for help and advice.

Alma had told her, "It never gets easy. That's because you have no way of protecting your students outside school. Be thankful you can protect them in school, you have walls and spells protecting them. But when you see them again, and they reveal what's happened to them, you'll feel helpless that you couldn't have helped them, except to help clean up the mess. It never gets easy."

Her mother was right. Ada had been in her position for a very long time and under her leadership she had educated dozens of young witches, but the dark side was several of her students had been raped. Each case was different, but Ada had done her best to give them as much support as she could. But she had not anticipated Mildred Hubble joining those victims.

Out of all the students she had had, Mildred was one of the few that defied most if not all of the rules. She was no longer unique since three girls from non witch families had joined the school, but the schools experiences with Mildred had shaped the way traditional teaching practices for girls from that background should go.

Ada had always loved the girl's company, finding her sweet disposition and charm a bonus, she was the last person anyone would expect to be raped. Seeing her crying at the thought of being pregnant…..it did hurt Ada. Children were sacred for witches and wizards, they ensured the survival of magic after all, but Ada couldn't blame Mildred for being upset she was pregnant. It wasn't exactly ideal, and Ada wondered what the girl would do.

Not willing to try Miss Cackles' patience though a few of them desperately wanted to go after Mildred and make sure she was alright after what she'd just revealed, the girls filed out from the hall. Miss Cackle went over to Maud and Enid. "Go with Miss Hardbroom, you two," she instructed. "She's going to need you."

* * *

I did say it was going to be grimmer, but things are going to get worse.


	4. Chapter 4 Aftermaths

Disclaimer - I hope you're enjoying this story despite the grim undertones.

Aftermaths.

It didn't take long for Miss Hardbroom, Enid and Maud to find Mildred. They had done a general search of the school for the most likely places Mildred could have gone before going out to the grounds. The moment the trio stepped out of the castle they knew they would find Mildred out here, and they did.

They found Mildred underneath a large tree where the canopy was low enough for her to be partially hidden - as hiding places went it was almost perfect. Mildred looked surprised at the sight of her best friends and Miss Hardbroom, then she looked resigned, but she tried to smile as warmly as she could. "Hi guys, Miss Hardbroom," she greeted as though the incident in the hall where she'd had to tell the story of her rape had never happened.

Maud and Enid were tongue tied as they tried to muster the right words to speak to Mildred, but it was the look on her face even as she smiled at them that made it incredibly hard to say anything to her.

While Mildred's smile looked genuine enough, it was her eyes that took the two third years and the potions mistress aback. They looked so sad, solemn, a look that was becoming very common on Mildred's face, but now they knew what had caused it the two girls felt more pity for her.

Wincing and feeling more uncomfortable when she realised that Mildred might not want them anywhere near her at the moment, it was Maud who decided to break the temporary silence. "Do you want us to go?"

"No. I could use the company, but I might want to be left alone at some point," Mildred sighed as she looked down at her hands, suddenly pensive.

Enid didn't like the silence. "I can't believe Ethel would do that to you, go that far-"

"Actually, I'm glad she did," Mildred looked up, the solemn look deepened that gave her face a much older appearance. Miss Hardbroom didn't like that since it wasn't fair this 13 year old girl had been forced to grow up too quickly with a situation that was even now ripping through her life like a butcher's blade through a steak.

Maud looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean, Millie?"

Mildred sighed again, hating how difficult it was to explain, or to find the right words to explain? Why was it so hard to just get on with things and say what she wanted? "I was always going to tell people what had happened," she admitted to them, "the attack, the rape, the way I was left, my fear over being alone in the flat after mum had gone to work, the pregnancy mum and I were dreading - I knew it would need to come out, but I wanted it to be on my terms. Speaking out to the entire school was the last thing that I'd wanted to do, but in a way it's helped; everyone knows, how about that?"

Maud and Enid shared a look with Miss Hardbroom - Mildred was taking this very well, it seemed but who knew what was going on in her mind?

Mildred didn't seem to mind telling them about her plan to reveal what had happened to her, and although it was good to know Mildred had planned to confide in others, Maud and Enid weren't that pleased by what she said. "I had planned to tell you two first," Mildred looked at her two best friends before looking at the still silent Miss Hardbroom, who was left standing there, wondering clearly what she could say or do to help Mildred. "And then I was going to speak to the teachers."

Mildred fell silent as she ran a hand over her stomach, and the trio that had followed her down into the grounds looked at that spot, and for the first time since they'd discovered Mildred was pregnant, Maud, Enid and Miss Hardbroom tried to wrap their minds around the fact that Mildred Hubble was indeed pregnant.

Although Maud knew the subject was bound to be touchy, she decided that it would be best if it was aired and touched upon before someone truly tactless asked Mildred about the baby inside her. After a moment debating with herself about what words to use, Maud decided to just say it even at the risk of angering Mildred. "How are you holding up about the baby?"

Mildred wasn't surprised by the question, she'd expected the subject of the baby to have come up sooner or later, but her friends and Miss Hardbroom were either uncertain about what to say or wondering what they could say without sounding tactless. Personally, she'd just wanted someone to say something, anything before she went nuts.

"I don't know," she admitted to them, refusing to look them in the eyes as she continued to rub her stomach as she tried to imagine what the baby looked like - it would still be underdeveloped by this stage, she imagined, but it was soon being more defined, "I mean…. I've been dreading knowing for sure for a month if I was pregnant. That…..thing that raped me, he didn't use contraception, and he didn't seem to care about emptying himself inside me. It's- oh I don't know, it's just difficult for me to focus. Everything is happening so fast."

Miss Hardbroom, who had been silent for a long time, spoke up at last. "What are you planning to do about the baby?"

Mildred looked up into the woman's face. "I don't know. I haven't got a plan, no real idea of what to do," she said before she let out a breath that was more of a huff. "I just don't know what to do?"

"You're going to have to think of a plan fast, Mildred," Maud said practically.

"Do you think I don't know that?" Mildred closed her eyes as she voiced her problems. "I'm thirteen years old. I live with my mum in a block of flats. I don't have any other relatives living nearby who can help pick up the slack, so it's not so simple as you might think, and mum has never spoken of any other relatives, and my grandma died when I was 7 years old and my aunt 3 years before. Maud, Enid, Miss Hardbroom, I've never ever held a child in my life. I don't know how to care for a baby, and that leads to another problem; if I keep the baby, who will look after it full time? I can't just foist it off on my mum and hope for the best. What kind of mum would I be if I did that?"

Mildred then paled as a thought crossed her mind. "Oh god. I'm going to be mum." She groaned and face palmed. "I'd always thought about having kids," she said, her voice muffled by her hands. "But this was not what I'd had in mind."

Miss Hardbroom couldn't blame Mildred, and she knew she would have to be tactful. "You could always either have it put up for adoption or have it aborted?" she suggested.

Maud and Enid looked horrified by what she'd just said, but Mildred looked up at her. "Believe me its tempting, in fact I would not be surprised if half of abortions are down to rapes. But I don't think I can do it, I can't just kill a child. I don't know this kid's father, I don't know if he grew up in foster care and turned out to be a monster who didn't care if he raped a 13 year old in the first place. Listen, if any of you were raped, dragged off a path in the middle of the night and eventually you discovered that that rapist had started off on life as a helpless baby dumped at an orphanage, who grew up with no clue about where he came from, and he became a rapist later on and goes on to rape a number of girls like you two, and you found out you were pregnant, and you decided to simply drop the babies you were carrying off at a home and they eventually grew up to become to become sex offenders themselves, how would you feel if you discovered the baby you had given birth to had gone on to become a rapist themselves? Wouldn't you feel guilty because you had caused more pain?"

Maud and Enid looked at each other, wondering where on Earth Mildred had gotten this scenario from, but they couldn't push it out of their minds even as they mentally tried to argue with Mildred since the girl did have a point.

"Putting the baby up for adoption would be the kindest thing I could do, because even if I did keep it, whose to say something in its blood doesn't make it like its father? I couldn't live with myself if that happened, that is why I am torn between simply putting it up for adoption and swallowing my morals and having an abortion, but if I do that would I still be able to live with myself?" Mildred shook her head. "My mind is swamped by what ifs, ideas that come with their own inherent flaws. It's annoying."

Silence descended upon the group since the other three witches could tell that Mildred was not in any fit state to discuss the matter of the baby, so instead Maud turned to Miss Hardbroom. "What's going to happen to Ethel?"

"Ethel will be punished by Miss Cackle, Mildred, though I don't know for sure what the headmistress has in mind, and after I'm finished with you I plan to add a punishment of my own. Ethel had no right to corner you so aggressively like she did," Miss Hardbroom said.

Mildred mulled it over thoughtfully. "Can I speak to Miss Cackle about it, please?" she asked.

* * *

In the headmistress's office Ethel Hallow was standing not so far from her elder sister, but Esme wasn't defending her, not this time, though Ethel didn't feel any resentment because she knew in her heart she had gone too far. Miss Cackle had taken the Hallow sisters to her office, but the older witch hadn't said a word to either of them at first, like she was trying to figure out the best words to use. When Miss Cackle had used the silent treatment on her, Ethel had wanted the woman to get on with it, and she even welcomed expulsion from the academy for what she had done. But she should have expected it; Miss Cackle had a soft spot for Mildred Hubble, everyone in the castle knew it.

What had she done? Morgana, what had she done? She knew there were lines that were never meant to be crossed, and she had crossed them by humiliating Mildred, calling her a coward when she knew full well the girl was anything but.

When she had discovered that Mildred had been attacked during the holidays and had refused to speak about what had happened, she had not thought it was anything serous and that Mildred's apparent change in attitude was just her wanting more attention. Ethel had seen the tactic several times in the past, so she hadn't thought it was anything to worry about. Okay, she had known from the start saying it was Julie Hubble was going too far; Ethel had never spoken to the woman, but she knew that Mildred loved her mother and that love was returned, something that made Ethel jealous considering what the pitiful relationship she had with her own mother.

Ethel wondered how Mildred had coped with being raped by a stranger, and how she was coping now she knew she was pregnant with that man's baby. How could she cope?

Finally Miss Cackle began to speak after a very long time."I find myself running out of patience with you, Ethel Hallow. For the last two years I have had you and Mildred in this very office to discuss this feud going on between you both, but this time you have gone too far."

Ethel didn't utter a word. She agreed with Miss Cackle, she had gone too far.

Ada went silent as she tried to find the right words to say to Ethel again, but she was too upset and angry by what the girl had done to think straight. She glanced up at Esmerelda, and saw the uncertain but deeply disappointed look on her face. But it was the pain in her expression that made Ada even more upset because she knew how much Esmerelda hated being in this office for this reason, and now it had grown worse.

"I am trying to think of a suitable punishment for you, but for the life of me I can't, but give me a few minutes and you'll be given a punishment that makes lines and detention seem like a broomstick flight-"

The door opened and Miss Hardbroom came in, followed by Mildred, Maud and Enid.

Mildred spoke before anyone could say anything, her manner brisk and businesslike, completely different from her meek and quiet until spoken persona.

"Miss Cackle, have you punished Ethel yet?" she asked.

Everyone was surprised by the directness of the question. "No Mildred, but rest assured she will be punished," Miss Cackle replied reassuringly.

Mildred sighed, "I just wanted to say don't bother. I don't want you to punish her."

Everyone in the office was astounded, but Mildred didn't seem swayed by the emotions raging throughout the room. "Mildred, she humiliated you-" Hecate tried to say.

"I know," Mildred interrupted, wincing inwardly since she knew Miss Hardbroom hated being interrupted and knew she could pay for it, but she needed to get this out of her mind. "But listen, this whole thing has been driving me mad for a month, I've been terrified of leaving my own home, and I have been frightened if another man sees me, he'll rape me and I know it's stupid because I know he wouldn't do it, that fear extended to my own spells teacher."

Mildred held up a hand to keep everyone silent before she went ahead with what needed to be said next. "Miss Cackle, I should have told you and my friends what had happened, but I was frightened and that fear has held me back for weeks. I was terrified you would think less of me for being….. raped," she stumbled upon the word for a second, but then she pushed past it and carried on, "Ethel did me a favour, she pushed me into that corner. Granted, she'd make a lousy psychiatrist with her tact, but she did me a favour and for that I'm grateful. She made me tell you guys what happened, and she also made me face up to the fact I'm pregnant. I'm not happy about her forcing me to talk the way she did, but I was trying to muster the nerve to tell you and my friends what had happened. I have been just so….scared and embarrassed by what had happened."

Closing her eyes and sighing Mildred went on, "Miss Cackle, I have enough problems other than the thing you and Miss Hardbroom call a feud," she jabbed her left thumb outwards, imitating Big Joe from that war film Kelly's heroes, "to the left I've got my lessons and making sure I don't mess them up," she jabbed her right thumb outwards to her left, "to the right, I'm worried about my mother and, to the rear I've got to worry about the rapist in case the police don't catch him and he does it again to somebody else, and besides all that I've got this pregnancy to deal with. I don't need any more grief, and this will cause me grief because I don't want her punished."

Glad to have something different to focus on, Ada Cackle had to ask Mildred the critical question. "What will you do about the baby?" she asked, unsure if she even wanted to know. Mildred Hubble was not the type of girl to have an abortion, but that didn't mean she couldn't simply put the baby up for adoption.

Mildred closed her eyes for a moment, that was the big question but she was becoming very tired of having that question thrown into her face every minute of everyday. "I don't know," she admitted, "my age is a problem. Another is how I'd fit having a baby in my bedroom; one option is I'd leave it with my mum, but I doubt she'd go for that. Another problem is finance; mum works as a nurse at the local hospital, so her time at home is limited. I couldn't do that to her. Another option is to simply admit I'm not ready to be a mother at this point and put the baby up for adoption, but I haven't made up my mind about what to do just yet."

Mildred reopened her eyes and looked at the headmistress. "Please don't punish Ethel," she finished before she headed to the door, "I need to contact my mother. She needs to know about the pregnancy."

"You mean she doesn't know?" Esmerelda asked.

"How could we be sure if it was too soon?" Mildred snapped, then she back peddled at the look on Esme's face. "Sorry Esme. I wasn't sure if I was coming back pregnant, or if mum and I were worrying for nothing. We've been dreading this, but I was hoping to be sure when my symptoms actually started showing. I knew what to look for after looking it up online. My mood swings were one, but I just thought they were down to what happened that night. I have been tired and suffered a few more headaches than normal, but I wasn't sure. I was going to ask my mum to send in a pregnancy test to be sure, but I always planned to tell you when I was sure."

Ada walked around her desk and gently pulled Mildred into her arms. "I'm sorry Mildred, sorry you have to go through with this," she said softly.

Mildred hugged her back. "I am too," she whispered.

"Do you not have any other relatives who can help if you do decide to give the baby to Julie when you need to?"

Mildred shook her head and pulled away. "No," she replied, "the Hubbles didn't come to this part of the country until 40 years ago, and there were just a few of them. My mum relied on her own mum to help bring me up, and she died when I was 7. It's just us now. If I do have any other relatives than my mum doesn't know. Anyway, I'd better go - is it okay if I can go inside the Mirror room and speak to her?"

Ada smiled. "Of course, take as long as you need."

"Thank you," Mildred smiled before grinning at her friends. "Thanks guys," and then she turned to Ethel, who had been remarkably silent during the whole exchange. "Thanks Ethel, for making me pull myself together."

Everyone in the room watched as the dark haired girl left the office and headed out on her way.

As she walked towards the Mirror room hoping no one met her along the way and that no one spoke to her, Mildred wondered what she could say to her mother, assuming she was even in the flat and not at work; that was the problem with being at Cackles because it was so difficult to know what was going on in the outside world. It took time, but she and her mum had set up a routine so then they'd be able to speak to each other.

Even if her mum wasn't back home at the flat, Mildred didn't really mind since it would give her the chance to work out what she could say to her mother in the first place.

* * *

Arriving at the door where the magical mirror was kept in, Mildred took out the card she'd managed to get hold of out of her pocket, and flashed it at the mirror before sitting down and letting the image coalesce. Mildred smiled when she saw the inside of her flat, trying hard to not let the memories of those 8 days where she was so frightened of leaving….. But she shook her head and she saw her mother, sighing in relief. Julie was dressed in her nurse's uniform, and judging from the frantic movements she was about to leave.

"Mum, pick up," Mildred called, holding back the urge to giggle when she saw Julie jump just as she was picking up the keys for the car.

"Mildred," Julie chided gently before she blinked in surprise. "Why aren't you in class? And I thought you were calling me tomorrow, unless it's tomorrow already and I didn't know about it?" Julie checked her watch making Mildred laugh. "I won't keep you mum," Mildred said as she calmed down, "I know you've got to get out quickly, but they know about that night."

Julie sat down. "They know you were raped? I told Miss Hardbroom to only tell the staff," she shook her head in disappointment at what she perceived to be the teachers insensitivity, but Mildred was quick to stop her. "No mum, it wasn't Miss Hardbroom. Ethel Hallow has been driving me into a corner for days since the term began, she cornered me in the Great hall when we were about to eat breakfast. She said some nasty things to me, Maud and Enid. I just snapped and told them all what happened that night, so now they all know."

Julie looked at her sadly, imagining only too well how it had been taken by everyone in the school, especially at the start of the day. "Oh Mildred…."

Mildred swallowed. Here was the part she had been dreading. "Mum, I'm definitely pregnant," she said, wondering if Miss Hardbroom had already made it painfully obvious to her mother already about the strange illness she had contracted after being magically transported around Cackles that she was exhibiting symptoms very similar to a typical pregnancy in the early stages.

Her mother was a nurse for god's sake, so it shouldn't have taken her mum long to put 2 and 2 together to get 4.

Julie didn't look surprised by the news. "How did you find out, a magical pregnancy test?"

"I knew the moment I began puking after being transported what was happening, but I double checked, but I asked Miss Cackle after I'd spoken to the entire school about the rape I was pregnant, but I wanted to be sure. So I asked Miss Cackle to cast a spell to see if I was pregnant. It's positive," Mildred looked down at hands in her lap. "I don't know what to do, mum," she confessed, "part of me just wants to have the baby aborted, but another part just wants to put it in a foster home, but if I do that, then I could be condemning the baby to becoming like its father. I can't do that."

Julie didn't know what to say, though she thought it was a little bit ridiculous for her daughter to be frightened of something like that, but she had to admit the idea of Mildred having an abortion was out of character since Mildred didn't like violence or death. Personally, she felt that Mildred wasn't ready to be a mother, despite having a lot of faith in her, but she needed to be realistic towards this mess, and her being in a boarding school wasn't a help either. And while Julie was sure that the girls and teachers of the school were sympathetic towards Mildred for getting raped, she doubted they would be happy about having to hear a baby cry at all hours and she doubted that Mildred herself would be happy.

And then Mildred had to go and say something that Julie herself dreaded. "And I don't think I could lumber you with the baby if I decide to keep it."

Julie lifted and eyebrow, hoping that her eyes were telling her daughter 'don't even think about it' concerning this idea. While she was more than happy to babysit on occasion, Julie had no intention of being a full time carer. It was a little bit mean, but Julie didn't think it was right for Mildred to just give her the baby without giving too much thought about what it might do to her. She had a busy life as it was, and having a baby would be stressful for her. If Mildred was thinking about it…..

Then again Mildred did say that she didn't think she could just leave the baby with her, so there was some sense of hope. But what did she plan to do with it? Julie hoped Mildred wasn't going for the abortion option; as a nurse she knew that the two sides of the age old argument depended on the point of view of whoever planned to get rid of the baby, and even if you didn't like the idea before the pregnancy it was possible to change the tune after finding out for certain. But Julie knew Mildred wasn't going to go through with it even if it looked attractive. No, she imagined Mildred was going to do the right thing, put the baby up for adoption, and hope that it grew up to be a better person than its father. There was the chance that Mildred will make it easy for the baby to discover the truth of its maternity, so in the future she might have to meet with him or her and have to deal with a confrontation when Mildred was older, and hopefully the baby would grow up to understand why Mildred had put it up for adoption in the first place.

Julie hadn't had this problem when she was pregnant with Mildred because she had been old enough to live independently and had a job with kind people who allowed her the time to properly raise Mildred, and she had her own mother to take care of Mildred whenever possible.

And even if Mildred decided to keep the baby then they would need to talk with the staff at Cackles about what they could do about the baby's full time care. They would have to wait and see.

"How do you feel about everyone knowing about the pregnancy and the rape Mildred, it couldn't have been easy for you to talk about it?" Julie enquired gently.

Mildred looked down, the familiar sad expression catching Julie's attention. Oh no. "I was planning on telling Maud and Enid at some point, and I was going to talk to the teachers afterwards. I know, I should have told them before, but I was so embarrassed and scared I couldn't do it. If it wasn't for Ethel pushing me into a corner in the first place I would probably have told them at the last minute. How do I feel about it? Part of me feels free, it's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. But I don't want to be pitied."

Julie was in two minds hearing that. While she was glad that Mildred felt a bit better she wasn't happy about her being scared and embarrassed about being raped when it wasn't her fault, but then again she had no idea if Mildred had been raped on impulse or not. She hoped that was the case, otherwise the weight that had just been lifted off Mildred's shoulders would just be dropped back down on them again and be much heavier than before.

Mildred didn't need that stress, she had more than enough troubles as it was.

"I've spoken to the police," Julie said after a quick glance at her watch to make sure she still had time to spare before she had to get on to work, "asked them what was happening."

"What did they say?" Mildred was a little ambivalent about the answer. The police had been trying to find new leads for a while, but the more time passed, the more convinced she was they weren't going to catch the rapist. And the look on her mother's face wasn't reassuring her one little bit and Mildred knew that she shouldn't get her hopes up.

"They still haven't found him. They think he's gone to ground and gotten cold feet after that night, but they haven't found anything in their database that matches."

"Why am I not surprised?" Mildred asked rhetorically before she decided she didn't want to carry on with this depressing subject any longer. "Listen, I know you need to head off, I'm sorry-"

Julie cut through before she let her daughter babble too much. "No, it's okay, I'm sorry I don't have any better news-"

"I wasn't expecting any," Mildred interrupted, "I still think that night was a first time for the rapist."

Julie frowned at the interruption, but she had to admit her daughter could be right, though she only hoped she wasn't. "They might find him, Mildred," she reminded.

* * *

After the mirror call to her mum, Mildred went back to the grounds - it was quiet out there and she didn't want to re join any of her classes at the moment, and she definitely didn't want to go back to her bedroom unless she wanted to be bored out of her wits. While she would still be on her own, at least she had the pleasure of the fresh air, the greenery and the trees, and the birdsong would be more pleasant than the dull quietness of her bedroom or one of the rooms in the school.

As she sat in a spot much further away from the place Maud, Enid and Miss Hardbroom had found her sitting at, Mildred hoped no one bothered her. While she was happy that her friends and Miss Hardbroom had spoken to her and she herself had spoken to Miss Cackle about not punishing Ethel, Mildred needed the time to work out what she was going to do. She wasn't surprised by the lack of anything new from the police. It wasn't like they'd had enough to go on anyway, even with the genetic evidence taken from her after she'd been raped. Mildred closed her eyes, part of her wishing that she could go back in time and stop this whole mess from happening, but remembering what had happened the last time she had stepped back into the past and the consequences of it was a definite no.

She wondered what was going to happen with the Hallows. Mildred had seen Esmerelda's face in the office, knew that the girl was both relieved and surprised that she'd intervened, but that didn't mean she was likely to let Ethel off the hook. That was a better punishment for Ethel in Mildred's mind, but Esme and Sybil didn't deserve any backlash for that incident in the hall.

Mildred closed her eyes and rubbed her temples as her mind changed tack to focus on her more immediate problem.

The baby and what she was going to do with it?

Her mother was leaning more on having it put into foster care and Mildred couldn't blame her. Julie Hubble was a loving mother, but she was also a practical woman who knew they couldn't look after a baby because their lives were both too busy and hectic. Julie was a nurse at the hospital, her hours were hectic and erratic, and there were times where Mildred had seen her mother come home in the early morning, absolutely exhausted and in a foul mood. A baby added was not a good combination, and Mildred didn't dare ask what it was like raising her. Her mum had also made it very clear with that look that it was not an option anyway, and Mildred didn't blame her for that.

Being at Cackles was also not ideal or a good combination either. While she had her friends, Mildred knew that having a baby would be stressful for everyone despite what compromise she could reach with Miss Cackle. Face it, she thought to herself harshly, neither mum nor I want to have anything to do with this baby.

* * *

"Miss Cackle may have decided to listen to Mildred, Ethel, and you were lucky this time." Esmerelda was saying to her sister. The two sisters hadn't had much of a chance to speak after that meeting in Miss Cackle's office and they were both sent to their respective classes. At dinner Esme had left her friends to speak to Ethel after trying to work out an appropriate punishment for her sister for embarrassing herself and pushing Mildred into a corner.

While Esmerelda was willing for Mildred to push this mess aside, she wasn't. The only problem was Esme couldn't think of anything suitable to do with her sister.

"I know," Ethel whispered. All three of the Hallow girls were in the eldest's bedroom, including Sybil, who had wanted to be included in the discussion. They'd been discussing the matter at hand for an hour already, but while her sisters had been speaking Ethel had barely listened to a word they'd said. She was thinking about what Mildred was going through and how grateful she was towards her for cornering her in the Great hall like she had. If Ethel Hallow was honest with herself, then she would say she didn't understand Mildred Hubble at all. Esme and Sybil had been haranguing her all day telling her she needed to apologise to Mildred. How could she when the dark haired girl had told her honestly that she was grateful for what had happened?

Standing up, Ethel left the bedroom, ignoring her sisters and hurried to find Mildred. She had to make this right. When she had confronted Mildred earlier, she had been under the impression the girl was acting out, trying to get attention - oh, Ethel believed something had happened, but she had thought it wasn't anything serious, and once it was out in the open then everything would be fine. Looking back, she could now see clearly that she had been foolish and stupid - Mildred Hubble was many things, but she never exaggerated, nor did she tell stories like that. Ethel didn't know what she was going to say to Mildred, but she wanted to try to make the effort to apologise - she might have issues with Mildred, but even she had to see where the line was drawn.

Finding Mildred wasn't too difficult - she was in her bedroom, lightly speaking to Maud and Enid. After lightly knocking on the door and hearing the quiet 'Come in," Ethel opened the door. She wasn't surprised to see the hostility in Enid and Maud's face - Mildred might have forgiven her but that didn't mean she was sincere deep down, but Maud and Enid weren't as forgiving.

"What do you want?" Maud snapped.

Ethel glanced at Mildred. "I just want to talk to you, in private."

Mildred nodded silently at Maud and Enid, the look and set of her face, stopping the pair of them from arguing. Both girls left the bedroom grumbling all the way, but neither Mildred nor Ethel noticed. "Okay Ethel, what is it you want to say to me?" Mildred asked.

Ethel wasn't sure if she liked the calm, but she appreciated it nonetheless. "I wanted to say I'm sorry for what I said and did earlier, I had no right to make you recount what happened to you. I'm sorry, Mildred."

"Ethel, we've been over this. You don't need to apologise. You made me talk about it. I was frightened and there was chance I would keep wallowing in the depression and never get over it. There were days I was prepared to grab Maud, Enid, Miss Hardbroom or Miss Drill and tell them the truth, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't muster the courage to say a word. You cornering me this morning did the trick, I'm sure I'd have spoken to someone eventually, but how soon is eventually?"

Ethel was rendered speechless - she'd expected Mildred to say something, anything, that spoke of her inner feelings. It had been hours since she'd seen her rival in Miss Cackle's office, surely her feelings had changed a little?

Meanwhile Mildred took one look at the feelings that crossed Ethel's face and sighed mentally. One of the problems with Ethel was she was so used to being horrible and nasty at times that she had forgotten that not everyone had her mindset and attitude so when she had to deal with people who were opposite her on the spectrum she had no idea what to do. "I meant what I said in Miss Cackle's office," she said, "it doesn't matter. It's over and done with. Can we please move on?" she finished, hoping that Ethel would just say yes so then they could finally get away from this pathetic little feud, though whether or not Ethel would accept was up to the blond.

Fortunately Ethel gave a hesitant smile. "Sure."

Mildred smiled back. They would probably not become really close friends, but maybe there was a chance they could form a tentative friendship.

* * *

What do you think?


	5. Chapter 5 Settling

I hope you enjoy this latest chapter.

Settling.

The baby was beginning to show. Mildred rubbed her swelling stomach gently while sitting on her bed, but she multitasked between stroking her belly and looking at the ultrasound photo she had recently had taken just today when her mother had asked Miss Cackle if she could get the baby looked at. Miss Cackle had agreed to it knowing that although the school nurse was a professional witch in the field of healing, her tasks were usually relegated to giving the girls checkups for ordinary illnesses and dealing with magically afflicted maladies. While the nurse could probably keep an eye on Mildred, she had admitted to Miss Cackle that her experience didn't really cover pregnancy.

Mildred had been allowed to go with her mother to get a checkup on the baby and she'd come back with an ultrasound photo of the still developing baby. Looking at the photo was like looking at a ghostly image that was still trying to materialise, and there wasn't a great deal of the baby yet for Mildred to identify. It just looked like a grey mass in a black background, but a careful observer could see the face developing out of the mass. As she rubbed her belly absently, Mildred was beginning to question the idea in her mind - it was hardly a decision since she was still unsure of what to do - about the future of the baby. Part of her was tempted to forget the decision to just dump the baby in a foster home, ignoring the fact that she couldn't possibly look after it, and just hoping for the best.

Whenever Mildred realised how far her brain was going to make her care for the baby, it took a mental effort to make her wake up and see reality, but her mind would always go back to thinking about being a good mother of the baby. The only problem she had was that pregnancy was not a picnic - her mother had already warned her of possible symptoms, and being a nurse she knew them all, had seen them all. It had been three months since she had been….raped, and in that time so much had changed; one minute she had been a carefree girl, and now she was an expectant mother and her experiences had made her a little cynical and pragmatic though she still kept her sunny nature.

Mildred sat up, wincing at the throbbing pain in her head. Great. Another headache was coming. Her mother had told her it was because of increased levels of blood and hormones, but she had been taking enough rests to relieve the pain. Mildred looked up when there was a knocking on the door and, thinking it was either Maud or Enid, called out, "Come in."

To her surprise Miss Hardbroom entered. "How did it go today?" she asked directly. Mildred admired that about Miss Hardbroom sometimes even if her directness sometimes bordered on being brusque. But as much as Mildred might like Miss Cackle, she did sometimes find the woman not direct enough, which made her thankful Miss Hardbroom was around.

Mildred stood up and walked over to the potions teacher and showed her the picture and began pointing to different bits. "That's the chest, that's the head, and I think that's one of the legs. Unless it's all jumbled and upside down," she added.

Miss Hardbroom suppressed the urge to smile. It was good to see Mildred returning to her old self. During the girl's first two years her disposition had almost driven Hecate crazy, but she had grown used to it, and besides it wasn't a bad thing to see the girl smile once or twice. And that wasn't a bad thing, was it?

"How are you feeling?" she asked, putting emphasis on the word you.

Mildred bit her lip, debating with herself before deciding to just come out and say it. She had already told her mother about her feelings about the baby, about wanting to keep it. Julie had said it was understandable and natural for her to feel that way, but she had also said she needed to be logical but she would stand by her daughter no matter what. Mildred was thankful for that.

"Truthfully? I have no idea. I've got hormones giving me headaches, I've still got morning sickness, but everyone is telling me I've got a glow to my face," Mildred replied honestly.

Hecate looked at her sympathetically, but she had to admit that pregnancy, even under the circumstances, seemed to suit Mildred, who already had a glowing face but now her face seemed to glow like a miniature sun. Hecate bit her lip, wondering if she should even comment that it was true before deciding that it was probably the last thing Mildred wanted to hear.

"You're going to be fine," she said instead. "Women have been pregnant throughout history. If they can get through it, you can as well."

The moment the words were out of her mouth, Hecate instantly wanted to snatch them back. It sounded a bit tactless even though she was desperately trying to be reassuring.

Mildred quirked a brow at her, but she didn't say a word for a moment as she considered what Miss Hardbroom had just said. "Maybe, and some of them had probably gone through what I have."

Miss Hardbroom nodded before deciding she should change the subject a little. "Have you shown that to anybody else?"

"Yeah, half of the school has seen it," Mildred replied, not saying how relieved she was, she didn't have to go on about the way everyone was saying she was glowing. Instead, she decided to just confide in Miss Hardbroom a little. "Miss Hardbroom," she began, unsure how she should put what she wanted to say to the woman who had only become more approachable over the years but at different moments, "would you-um?"

Miss Hardbroom rolled her eyes. "Would I what, Mildred? Get on with it." She did feel a little bit guilty for speaking to the girl like that, but unless Mildred actually spoke about what was preying on her mind she couldn't help her. Hecate was sure the girl was a bit torn about the baby. She and the other teachers had seen the expressions playing on the girl's face, and they knew she was just trying to make her mind up.

"Is it normal for me, even if I've more or less made my mind up about the baby being put into care, to think about caring for it?" Mildred got out, stumbling a little bit over her question as she tried to find the ideal words to describe her indecision.

Now she had heard the question, Hecate realised she wasn't surprised to hear it. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised in the least if Mildred was the latest in a very long line of mothers to be who knew they couldn't keep a child but couldn't help but dream about it.

"I think so, yes, have you been feeling this way?" Hecate asked even as she tried running through her mind the possible outcomes of Mildred changing her mind about the baby and deciding to keep it.

Mildred nodded. "Yes. I've also told my mum about it, and while I know she'll support me, I know she'd be concerned about me looking after the baby and if we'll be able to cope."

Hecate couldn't blame her. One of the scenarios the girl had come up with if she decided to look after the baby was on the cards was being forced to rely upon Julie Hubble to take care of the infant. Hecate knew that Julie's life was busy enough as it was, she didn't need a baby in the mix, but the only other alternative was Mildred looking after the baby in the school, and everyone knew that would prove to be difficult.

Many people believed that Hecate didn't care for Mildred's mother, but that wasn't true. In fact, Hecate actually respected Julie, and it wasn't just for bringing up a child as difficult as Mildred. No, it was because of the straight fact Julie had raised a witch all by herself. But she wasn't Wonder Woman. Julie could look after the baby, but to a point, and only for short periods. If Mildred genuinely wanted to keep the baby, then Julie would have to be a vital part of that plan.

"What have you in mind?" she asked, hoping her concern didn't come across as fear.

"Oh, I know I couldn't look after the baby, I'm just not ready," Mildred's words reassured Hecate, but there was a look in the girl's face that did anything but reassure her, "I know that."

"But if the situation was different, if you were a bit older, then perhaps you would consider looking after the baby and raising it with your mother's help?" Hecate clarified.

Mildred nodded.

"I do not think there is nothing abnormal about your indecision, Mildred, in fact I believe you're going through something normal. It is a part of nature that expectant mothers work to prepare for caring for their child," Hecate explained, though she imagined Mildred was probably aware of that already, "even if you were…..well," Hecate struggled to say the word.

"Raped? It's okay, Miss Hardbroom, I've almost come to terms with what had happened to me," Mildred finished for her, but while Miss Hardbroom had to suppress the wince at how casually the girl spoke about being raped by that…..that pig, but she saw Mildred's eyes and realised that she wasn't completely over it; how could she be anyway, since it had ruined her life?

Hecate had just been thankful the girl had everyone around her to help her through it and besides Mildred was a strong person. She may have been annoying at times and a handful, but Hecate knew that Mildred was capable.

"Are you sure about that, Mildred? I know that the psychiatrist Miss Cackle arranged for you to meet has helped you, but is it doing any good?" Hecate asked bluntly; she wasn't a psychologist, but she knew that sometimes being direct and even nasty was a good way to get Mildred to move on. Ethel may have made Mildred reveal what had happened to her, but that didn't mean she was necessarily a hundred percent over it.

Mildred looked into her teachers face, feeling the emotions inside her boil up inside her. When she had been raped, she had worked hard to suppress the truth of what had happened to her, and while Ethel had helped her speak about it and it took a weight off her shoulders she still felt uncertain about her future. Miss Cackle had been very good to her, finding a qualified psychiatrist to help her get through the misery of being raped, and while the sessions were helping her Mildred wasn't sure if it would help in the long run, and she had no idea why that was.

* * *

In another part of the country, the house of the Great Wizard stood. It was built much like a mansion, but it had a blend of an ordinary cottage and had the turrets of a castle added on. With the rich grounds with the grass kept under a spell to keep it at an adjustable length, a pond the size of a swimming pool and fountains trickling water with fish swimming beneath the surface, and the actual swimming pool and the tennis court that the Great Wizards of the past had added to the grounds over the years, the house was a beautiful place to live with each wizard given the title of the Great Wizard adding their own tastes.

Unfortunately the current owner of the title was feeling anything but Great. Lying on his bed with his blue and silver trimmed robes neatly arranged on a nearby chair, and fussed over by a small group of magical healers the Great Wizard struggled to get better from the sudden illness that had overtaken him. He was a terrible mess; his hair was plastered close to the skin, and no matter how hard he struggled he simply couldn't keep himself cool. The bed sheets underneath him white clothed body were soaked with sweat. The healers fussing over him had spent hours casting spells to keep him cool, but the illness that afflicted him was the magical equivalent of a fever and while their spells worked they knew it would take a while for the wizard's own magic to fight back. It was doing so at the moment, but the strain and the amount of magic the wizard was using to fight the fever made the man dizzy and more than a little sick.

Two of the Great Wizard's healers were speaking to the wizard's aide. "You may as well tell the council that it will take some time before His Greatness fully recovers from the fever," the senior healer was saying to the aide.

The aide glanced over the healer's shoulder and saw the state of the wizard. He was moaning and sweating and he looked pale. "What's the diagnosis?" the aide asked.

The healers were about to reply when a cry from one of the other healers caught their attention. The senior healer sighed when he why the other healer had cried out. "Oh no, not again," he sighed. There on the floor near the bed was a brightly coloured ball. There was a flash of magic and the ball disappeared, becoming instead a small flag.

The aide was confused. "What's going on?" he asked, he was a powerful and experienced wizard, perhaps not as experienced as the Great Wizard himself, but he would be the first person to admit he was out of his league.

"His Greatness's illness is a magical one," the senior healer explained. "It's fighting the Great Wizard's magic, cancelling spells he's cast, restoring them, and causing his powers to basically act up. The illness is causing his past spells to cancel themselves out. Some of those spells are manifesting themselves here, and its going back years."

"Going back years? How many years? How is it possible?"

The healer struggled to maintain his composure even though he desperately wanted the aide to get lost and let him get on with his job. "The Great Wizard is powerful, and while his magic is fighting the fever it is somehow rippling through the spells he has cast over the last few years. For this ailment its common, though the more powerful the sufferer the longer it lasts. Don't ask me how many - I don't know anything about his spell records. For instance the ball is probably something he conjured for his grandchildren, but essentially every single spell he's cast is at risk and will be until His Greatness' magic finally fights the fever."

The aide felt a chill in his bones. "But His Greatness has been responsible for many acts to defend the law, the codes of both the Witches and Wizards-"

Listening to this idiot go on about laws when he had a job to do was the last straw for the healer. "Then you had better stop bleating at me, and get it all sorted, hadn't you? I've got work to do, you are his aide. Surely you know what he has done for the last few years?"

The healer turned away at that point as he dug through every scrap of knowledge he had acquired over his long years of healing to try to stabilise the Great Wizard's condition, completely unaware that in another part of the country one of the Great Wizard's spells was in the process of breaking down…..

* * *

This illness will have grave consequences.


	6. Chapter 6 Beginning of the Terrible day

Disclaimer - I don't own the Worst Witch, either the CITV series or the new CBBC series.

Feedback is always appreciated, thanks.

Beginning of the Terrible Day.

Ada Cackle's morning began as it usually did and she was walking slowly towards the staff common room so she could get something to eat for breakfast, knowing the only other teachers there would be Hecate, Algernon and Miss Bat, but she knew she would have to meet the child psychiatrist who'd be coming in a few days time once she had seen a few of her other patients. The Cackle's headmistress wondered if the psychiatrist, who happened to be a good friend, one of many whom she had made over the years, would be up to helping Mildred recover.

It was still so surreal. Everyone had been worried about Mildred when she'd returned from the holidays, and who could blame some of the girls from making assumptions? But unfortunately the truth was more terrible. Rape and unwanted pregnancy. Ada had encountered it enough times to know Mildred would need all the help she could get to move past this disaster, but she was glad the girl had people who were helping her rather than pushing them aside and suffering in silence.

Things had been quiet since the students had accepted the fact Mildred was pregnant. The ridiculous feud between Mildred and Ethel seemed to be over, especially since Mildred had astounded everyone by saying she didn't want Ethel punished for what she'd done in the Great Hall. Ada knew why Mildred had done that, though at the time she'd been surprised because the girl had suffered so much, but now looking back she realised how mature Mildred was with everything that had happened.

Ada remembered the way the girl had listed her current problems, and she could understand her reasoning behind asking her and Hecate to let Ethel off the Great Hall debacle. Ethel Hallow had a temper and so many issues, issues that truly did not belong whatsoever in Cackles. Ada smiled as she reached the common room and walked in.

"Morning Ada," Algernon said with his mouthful of crunchy toast.

"Morning Algernon," Ada replied, nodding at the wizard and Miss Bat, who was too busy eating some of her porridge to reply. As silent as her familiar Hecate walked over, holding two mugs of hot, steaming tea in them.

"Good morning, Ada," Hecate said in her usual calm manner, but to everyone who knew the younger witch this was as friendly as she got while preparing herself for another day of teaching.

"Morning Hecate," Ada replied, taking the mug and relished the feeling of warmth as she clutched it. "Anything new?"

"Well, I dropped by and saw Mildred last night. She's quite nervous about the pregnancy as it progresses," Hecate answered, deciding to get to the point. "It doesn't help she's experiencing hormones and morning sickness."

The listening teachers grimaced. For a usually mild mannered girl, they had never expected Mildred to shout whenever she became frustrated, but she had. They didn't hold it against her. In fact, they deeply sympathised with the girl considering what she had gone through already and what she continued to go through each day, but they didn't want their lessons disrupted. The reason Hecate hadn't mentioned it herself to Mildred the night before was she felt the girl had more than enough on her plate as it was, and she didn't want to add to it.

"I'm not surprised, Hecate," Ada replied. "I was hoping to mirror Annabel after breakfast, ask her about her impending visit."

"Annabel, she's the psychiatrist isn't she?" Hecate questioned, knowing it was but wanting confirmation.

"That's her, yes."

"How capable is she of getting through to a girl, a 13 year old, who's been raped?" Hecate probed further. It did worry the potions mistress because she could tell that even though Mildred was doing much better than she had done before the great hall incident where she told everyone in the school about what happened to her, she was still keeping her inner hell locked inside her.

Hecate did wonder if this psychiatrist may be in well over her head; child psychology wasn't Hecate's strong point, but she did know that although Mildred was doing better, she was probably holding down the worst of her feelings still.

"I know what you're saying, Hecate," Ada smiled warmly at her long time colleague, "but you will not worry; Annabel is an extremely gifted psychiatrist, she's got years of experience under her broomstick, and she will help Mildred."

It was left unsaid between the two teachers that Annabel wouldn't just SPEAK to Mildred. Magical psychiatrists used techniques that went deeper than words if they felt the experience merited it.

After breakfast, Ada was mentally arranging her diary for the day. She had to ask for new potion ingredients for Hecate, but that wasn't an issue, she'd have to mirror Annabel, and there was also a new transfer student who would arrive in a month's time whose family had recently moved to the country, and wanted their daughter to acquire a traditional education to sort out….

But all thoughts of booking an appointment for the transfer student went out of the window when she heard the sound of glass breaking, and it was coming from her office. Ada quickened her pace, wondering if she'd left the window open during the night and one of the familiars had managed to get in and had accidentally knocked something to the ground as it explored her office, a room not many cats had explored before, but Ada knew she hadn't left the window open.

Her eyes widened when she heard whispers coming from the office, but the voices were so low she couldn't hear what was being said, never mind tell who it was, but then she heard another sound she could identify.

Transportation spell.

It wasn't often Ada Cackle ran through the corridors of her school, but all of her teachers definitely wouldn't use a transportation spell in her office unless she was inside it herself. It was an unspoken rule everyone followed, especially Hecate, and besides Ada had already ruled her out; if Hecate wanted to speak to her, then she would have transported herself close to where Ada was, outside the office, and it didn't explain the sound of breaking glass.

Ada slowed to a stop outside her office, fingers prepared to cast defensive and offensive spells, already afraid of what ever the witch or wizard had done in her office. Not only did her office contain the personal files on the students currently at Cackles, there was also financial information stored there that only she and Hecate had access to, but there were numerous wall panels in there that contained hidden magical objects, old books containing spells that no child should ever see, never mind an outsider.

That sort of thing was commonplace in Magical society, to keep your secrets close and your possessions closer, and every witch and wizard knew that a wall and a floor could have hidden compartments.

Ada flicked her fingers at the door to open it slowly, and she stepped inside - she would kick herself later for not thinking of using the transportation spell herself, but at the time she was too busy wondering what anybody could be doing in her office - and she looked around.

Her office was completely empty, looking exactly the way it had been the night before. The only thing different about it were the shards of broken glass lying on the ground. But Ada didn't pay it much attention - she was more interested in finding out who had used the transportation spell in the first place, and she cast a few spells designed to track down the presence of a witch or wizard who'd used a transportation spell, but the results came up blank. Whoever had been in her office was gone.

But she didn't relax; Ada licked her lips, still worried and concerned about who'd transported out of her office, her mind running through a list of people it could've been, but she knew they would have stayed in her office if they wished to speak to her. Finally shrugging her shoulders with a sigh, she turned to examine the glass. To Ada's surprise the glass was close to a support column, and her blood turned cold as she realised which one.

"Oh no," Ada whispered in horror. The picture her sister and Miss Gullet had been imprisoned in for the last two years was shattered, and there was no sign of the two women.

Ada ran towards the mirror. "Hecate Hardbroom," she called, hoping her potions mistress was near a mirror and she was relieved when the image coalesced into an image of her potions mistress. "Hecate, Agatha and Miss Gullet are out of the picture."

* * *

Around that time, a very tired Mildred Hubble was sitting down to breakfast. She was so tired she hadn't realised which table she'd taken her food too.

"Morning Mildred," Ethel said.

Mildred looked up blearily, and yawned. "Morning Ethel, Sybil, Esme," she got out through the yawn as she focused on the three blond haired girls; and as much as she tried to stop herself, Mildred envied the three of them for looking so bright, fresh faced and alert which was a stark contrast to her.

Esmerelda blinked. "You sound and look knackered," she observed, speaking cautiously, knowing like everyone else that Mildred was currently like a walking bomb that could go off at any moment.

Annoyed by what she considered a lack of tact, Mildred glared at her before she nodded in agreement, just holding back the urge to either burst into tears or rant at Esme. "I am, that's what happens when you suffer morning sickness during the night," she replied, her nose wrinkling at the strong smells coming from the meals the three sisters were eating, and hoped it didn't reawaken her nausea.

"Oh no," Ethel whispered, "not again."

A part of Mildred wondered if Ethel only said that because she was getting sick and tired of her running out of lessons which disturbed everybody, but she didn't care. Mildred stayed silent as she chewed her own breakfast. It was a simple oatmeal that had the consistency of mud mixed with cement. It wasn't appetising, and she knew she'd be puking it up later anyway. Mildred suppressed the urge to moan at the thought of losing more nutrients.

She just nodded at what Ethel said.

"Bad?" Sybil whispered sympathetically, her heart going out to the kind hearted, haphazard girl.

Mildred nodded. "I might as well move my bed into the toilet," she whispered back. "I was back and forth seven times last night. I'm exhausted. My head is splitting. I went to the nurse before I came down to breakfast, I wanted to ask her if I could have a potion to relieve some of the symptoms, but she said no."

Esmerelda nodded in understanding. "Potions can affect the pregnancy," she explained, though she had the feeling Mildred already knew this. "Some of the ingredients in an ordinary, harmless potion can have toxic side effects."

Mildred just managed to swallow her oatmeal. She'd spooned a fairly large amount into her mouth during Esmerelda's impromptu lecture, and was now trying to stop herself choking at the mention of the word toxic. Her reaction didn't go unnoticed.

Sybil slapped her elder sister on the arm. "Don't scare Mildred," she chided.

"I'm not, I really am not!" Esme protested, looking sheepishly at Mildred. "Sorry Mildred."

Mildred shook her head, wincing suddenly and rubbed her eyes. "It's okay, just please don't say the word toxic again, at least not until the pregnancy's over with," she said.

"Sure thing," Esmerelda replied, glancing at her sisters in concern.

"I can't wait for the pregnancy to be over with," Mildred said, still rubbing her eyes and scrunching her forehead up so much it was like she had a vice clamped around her head. "Hormones, morning sickness, cravings….. I don't know how much more I can take, and the police still haven't caught the bastard who did this; it would ease my mind."

"Well, you did say the chances were remote," Ethel pointed out.

"I know, but I still held onto hope he'd be stupid enough to do something else that gave the police a clue to who he is," Mildred replied.

"How are the cravings?" Sybil asked quietly, hoping to get the thought of the rapist who'd practically ruined Mildred's life out of her mind, but she was at a loss to think of anything else to ask her.

"Oh, not too bad, I'm just relieved my cravings were simpler than I've heard," Mildred said, her voice full of relief. When her cravings had first developed, Mildred had been terrified of them because she hadn't known what to expect - she'd heard of some pretty weird things pregnant women ate during their cravings.

Another point of concern were the Dinner witches. They weren't the most friendly bunch Mildred had ever met, and they didn't seem to really care about the long term desires of the girls in the school. When Mildred's pregnancy became common knowledge, she had had to endure their sniping until she'd pointed out she hadn't planned on getting pregnant and raped. The kitchens weren't a place the girls went to unless they had no alternative, and besides while the teachers called the food 'nutritious' it wasn't exactly tailored to fit the needs of someone who happened to be pregnant.

Mrs Tapioca had been annoyed by that, especially with the demand to bring in watermelon and chocolate into the school, but fortunately Mildred took care of that. Watermelon and chocolate was a very weird mixture as far as Mildred was concerned, but at least the baby seemed sympathetic enough to not make her eat anything too weird.

Ethel had to suppress the urge to chuckle as she remembered Hardbroom's reaction to the sight of Mildred alternating between eating roughly cut watermelon pieces sandwiched together by pieces of chocolate and brewing a potion. Unfortunately, she couldn't handle it and she snickered.

Mildred shot her a look. "Hey, at least my cravings were better than my mothers," she said, then she began to laugh.

"What's the joke?" Sybil asked confused.

"My mum, when she found out what my cravings were, she told me I was a lucky cow," Mildred guffawed.

"Why, what were her cravings?" Esme wondered, her mind trying to think of some of the most bizarre things someone could eat during pregnancy and yet never think twice about avoiding it when they weren't pregnant.

Mildred recovered. "Pepperoni pizzas slathered in mustard, with honey drizzled all over it," she said. The Hallow sister's grimaced in disgust, Sybil going "Eww" as she tried to imagine someone eating something like that.

"Hey, it's normal for pregnant women to get weird cravings, but mum's reaction to what I was getting will be something I'll treasure to the day I die," Mildred began to say before she collapsed into a spasm of laughter.

"How is your mother, Mildred?" Esme asked, knowing like everyone else Mildred had been excused lessons the day before to get an ultrasound.

The humour left Mildred's face for a moment. "She's doing fine, thanks for asking," she replied, smiling gratefully at Esme before she decided to ask something of the girl she'd never considered before.

"Es, I'll make you a deal," Mildred began, waiting before Esme's attention was fixed solely on her, waiting curiously. "I'll ask you something and either of you can ask me something in turn, is that okay?"

The Hallow sisters glanced at each other, wondering clearly what Mildred had on her mind. "Okay," Esmerelda said slowly, "what do you want to ask?"

Mildred bit her lip. "What's it like looking after Ethel?" she asked, glancing at the girl in question.

"What?"

Mildred closed her eyes, realised she should have worded it better. "Sorry, I worded that wrong," she said, "one of the biggest drawbacks of not having many friends growing up," she added before she tried again. "What do you think I'm going to do with the baby once the pregnancy's over?"

Esme blinked in surprise and Ethel and Sybil looked a bit perplexed as well, though they had noted the bit about Mildred not having many friends growing up when she had dozens at the school. "Well, I've heard that you were planning to put the baby up for adoption, isn't that what's going to happen?" she added, getting slightly confused.

"True enough," Mildred agreed. "But a part of me wants to keep the baby; when I brought it up, mum said it was perfectly normal since it is my baby, and that I want to look after it. I do want children, Esme, but I'm just not ready for it. And besides, could you imagine me looking after a child in the school, none of you would be able to work, never mind sleep, and if I left the baby at home then mum would never forgive me. I couldn't do that to her."

Mildred looked between Esme and Ethel. "You mother Ethel, Es, I just want to know… how it feels to take care of her? Sorry, I'm talking about you as though you're not here, Ethel."

"No, it's okay," Ethel whispered, looking at Mildred with something the dark haired girl couldn't really discern.

Esmerelda licked her lips. "I love my sister," she replied honestly, "and I know that everyone in the school knows our mum and dad hurt her."

Mildred noticed Ethel looking down into her plate, and her heart went out to her. "I do," she whispered. "But I want to know….is it easy, being a mother figure, I mean?"

"You're having second thoughts, aren't you? About the baby?" Esmerelda whispered as she finally realised why Mildred was being like this.

"I don't know," Mildred looked at the three Hallow girls, her eyes only a moment away from watering. "I've always wanted to give my mum a grandchild. I always wondered if my daughter was eleven whether she would come here, pass the entrance exam without causing a problem," she looked at Ethel, "maybe even move higher up the ladder, from a red sash to a yellow, or even a purple one. But I know I'm not ready - I'm still a kid myself - but I want to know, is it easy being a mum?"

"You could ask your own mum, you know?" Esmerelda pointed out, hiding how she felt from the dark haired girl.

Mildred chuckled. "It's only occurred to me now. Please, just tell me."

Esme sighed. "When Ethel was born," she spared her sister a fond look, "she became my universe. I helped her learn so many things, and she learnt quickly. But we had fun. It wasn't all fun and games, like everything else in life, but we learnt how it went as time went on. It's still wonderful even now. Sorry if that doesn't help."

"No, it does," Mildred smiled back. "What do you guys want to ask me?"

Ethel, who'd been quiet so far, interjected quickly before her sisters could say a word. "Mildred, I've just remembered something you said in Miss Cackle's office after my… after what I did."

Mildred's smile faded noticeably as she remembered. "Oh?" she said guardedly.

"Did your family really move here 40 years ago?"

"Ethel," Esme hissed, thinking this was another line her sister was crossing that she shouldn't.

"Esme, it's okay," Mildred said. "Yeah, they did. I don't know the full story, I mean I only found out after that mess with the mutant hair; if I'd known about that little detail, I wouldn't have wasted Miss Bat's time. With her help I went to the archives, and checked for any other Hubbles. There weren't any besides me. I told mum, and she told me our family moved here 40 years ago, but she'd been a child when they'd moved. She doesn't even remember why, and my grandparents are dead, so they're unlikely to explain."

Ethel, being in Mildred's year, knew only too well how obsessed Mildred had been trying to find out more about how she'd gotten her powers. "You're still trying to find out, aren't you? About your powers, I mean?"

"I never stopped, but this year I haven't bothered. I mean, I've got more than enough on my mind as it is, right?" Mildred said.

Ethel nodded, thinking about everything that had happened so far. Mildred had a point.

"I've often wondered if I have an ancestor on my mum's side who's responsible for my powers, but I never knew my father. But Maud may be right, maybe I am just the first witch in my entire family to be a witch," Mildred went on.

Esme nodded. "You could be, there's no shame in that," she said as soothingly as she could.

"I know, but I would still like to know for sure," Mildred replied. "My father is also a subject I've tried to find out about, but mum doesn't like talking about him.

A thought entered Ethel's mind, and a sideways glance at her elder sister told her Esmerelda had thought the same thing. "Mildred," Ethel began carefully, "is it possible your mother didn't know your father-?"

"The thought has occurred to me, especially after what happened, and I realised I was pregnant," Mildred said, putting her spoon down. "There are three possibilities in my head about my dad; the first one is he and mum simply split up and she never really got over it. Second, she was raped, like I was, but was in a better position to take care of me, and third one is she simply had a one night stand. One and three are the ones I hope are the most likely, but only mum knows for sure."

Ethel felt sorry for Mildred not knowing who her father was, so she decided to cheer her up, the only problem was cheering people up wasn't something that came naturally to her.

"Mildred," she began carefully, trying to pick the right words even as the dark haired girl's attention turned to her, "you're going to get through this, but even if you don't know who in your family gave you your powers, you are one of us. A witch."

"Thanks Ethel," Mildred replied with a small smile on her face before something came to her, and she reached into her pocket and pulled out the ultrasound photo and handed it over to Sybil. The youngest Hallow gushed over the picture for a second before she said, "I can't see it's face."

Esmerelda looked at the photo. "It's only been a few months, Sybil, it's got a while to grow."

"It looks blobby," Ethel observed.

Mildred had to suppress a snicker when Esmerelda elbowed her sister sharply.

Mildred watched as the three sisters studied the photo and decided to get back to her icky breakfast. She looked down at her bowl, lifting her spoon free from the bowl. The oatmeal mix had hardened. It reminded everyone of treacle, it was just so gloopy.

"Are you really going to eat that?" Sybil asked while she held onto the ultrasound.

"If I don't, then Tapioca will be on my back, not that I care, and besides even if I ate this I'll probably regret it," Mildred replied before screwing her courage up and eating it. It took her a minute to swallow the stuff.

"Nice?" Ethel asked, noting Mildred looked like she was having trouble chewing it.

"It's bearable, don't know what the little guy makes of it," Mildred replied, taking another bite before grimacing at the taste and the consistency. "Builders should forget about cement, they should use this."

She looked down at the bowl and she decided she'd eaten enough for now. She noisily clinked the spoon into the bowl, idly wondering when the next bout of morning sickness would come before pushing that thought aside.

Hecate Hardbroom's fingers were casting multiple spells as she tried to pinpoint exactly where Miss Gullet had taken Agatha with the transportation spell while Ada was busy with the mirror.

When the headmistress was finished, Hecate was surprised when she saw how grave her friend and colleague was. "What is it?" Hecate asked.

"The Great Wizard is ill, and the illness is causing his magic to act up," Ada said, "spells that he cast over the last few years are either failing or acting up. Don't ask me to explain it, Hecate, all I know is what I've heard about it from the healers attending the Great Wizard."

"And one of the spells was on the picture," Hecate whispered, glancing at the photo. "I'm surprised this illness can extend back so long."

"I am too. I've contacted the Great Wizard's aides to let them know about Agatha's escape," Ada said, feeling the same sadness well up inside her that always crept up whenever she thought about the person her sister had become. Even after everything that had happened, Ada was still stunned Agatha had tried taking over the same school she had loved for years, and later planned to destroy the same school with innocent children inside it.

"When will they arrive?" Hecate asked, knowing the procedure well enough to know that in the presence of any escapee who'd been imprisoned by the Great Wizard there would be investigators who would have the skills needed to track them down. Hecate herself wasn't a slouch when it came to magic, but even she knew she wasn't qualified to track down Agatha or Gullet.

"A few hours from now."

"But that gives Agatha and Gullet a chance to attack," Hecate protested, though she knew it would take a while for the Great Wizard's staff to mobilise a party who'd find the two renegade witches. There were spells on the castle to prevent witches and wizards from just appearing thanks to transportation spells. Hecate knew that, but she also knew there was little she and the others could do.

Ada knew where her deputy was coming from and she agreed, but there was nothing the pair of them could do. "We shall have to let the other teachers know, and we shall need to tell the girls; the older years we can count on to be careful, but the younger ones…." she shook her head.

* * *

It didn't take long for the teachers to be put into the picture about the escape of Miss Gullet and Agatha, and they quickly hurried to the Great Hall where the students were eating breakfast.

"Girls, if I may have your attention please!" Miss Cackle called, uncharacteristically loud as she silenced the hall; usually she would be calmer, more mellow, but the situation was too serious for that. "I regret to inform you all my sister Agatha has escaped her prison. For the students who have never heard of her or have heard a vague story about her, the basics are my sister wishes to take this school. The last time she did, she almost destroyed the school, endangering everyone inside. But my sister and her helper Miss Gullet, who was once the spells science teacher here before she was fired because she had imprisoned Mr Rowan-Webb in the form of a frog, were imprisoned in a picture in my office. That picture has been shattered, and they are out."

Miss Cackle gave a sideways glance towards Miss Hardbroom. "We have contacted the authorities and they have sent a team to help track them down, but they will be here in a few hours. In the meantime, you are to proceed to your lessons, but you are not to venture out of the school, no matter what the reason. I shall cast spells on the castle to ensure your safety, but you must not leave the school no matter what-"

There came a terrible scream from outside. Maud's eyes widened in horror and so did Enid's, and surprisingly so did Ethel's as they worked out who had screamed.

* * *

Author's note - Don't expect a happy ending.


	7. Chapter 7 Agatha and Miss Gullet too far

Disclaimer - I don't own the Worst Witch.

Feedback, even if you don't like how this chapter is going to go is appreciated.

Agatha and Miss Gullet go too far.

Five minutes earlier…

Mildred sighed as she washed her face, trying her hardest to appear more presentable even if in an hour, or maybe less, she'd be back in this bathroom and throwing up. She blew out a breath, wincing at the taste of vomit in her mouth. She had left the Hallow sisters in the Great Hall when she'd begun feeling nauseous and she'd headed to the nearest toilet, and she'd thrown up, cursing the Dinner Witches for making a substance like wet cement.

She lifted her fingers, her mind already thinking of a spell to make her breath smell better, though she wondered if it was a good idea - one of the things she had discovered about magical pregnancies so far was her magic was liable to become too unstable; the nurse and Miss Hardbroom had both explained to her it was the hormones trying to keep the baby alive in her womb, but it was such a shame since she had gotten better at casting spells over the last year, now she felt she was back to square one.

Mildred decided to risk it, though she dreaded the potential aftermath of casting something that was so simple, and she closed her eyes and focused on making her mouth taste more like mint, then she flicked her fingers in the direction of her mouth…. and she almost choked in shock. Opening her eyes, she found her mouth full of foam from what tasted like toothpaste. Groaning in frustration, Mildred rolled the substance around in her mouth before she spat it out and rinsed her mouth of what was left.

When she was finished, she picked up her bag and left the bathroom - only to be surprised when she saw the distinctive figure of Miss Cackle and another witch in the corridor, though Mildred couldn't really see the other witch's face since their backs were turned, but she was mystified by their formal dress - was something going on that she hadn't known about? - but she decided to still be polite.

"Hello, Miss Cackle, it's a lovely morning isn't -?" The words died in Mildred's mouth as the two witches turned and she recognised the second witch as Miss Gullet, and the woman who looked like Ada Cackle was virtually identical, but Mildred had seen the woman enough times both as an adult and as a young girl to recognise Agatha Cackle.

The looks on the two women's faces turned into malicious smirks when they laid eyes on her.

"Hello, Mildred Hubble," Agatha purred, eyes glinting dangerously as they travelled across Mildred's body, and her smirk widened into a twisted skull's grin as they paused at the girl's rather swollen belly. "My, my, my, you have grown, my dear girl; not even 14 and you are already pregnant, but then we," Agatha gestured to a grinning Miss Gullet with a brief wave of her hand before turning back to Mildred, "both know the story of your rape during the summer."

Mildred stepped back, her hands instinctively encircling around her swollen belly - just because she was ambivalent about having this child didn't mean she wasn't going to protect it, and besides she knew these two women could cause her a lot of pain, even if the Great Wizard had taken the magic out of Agatha and given it back to Esmerelda Hallow, who'd donated it to her in the belief it was Ada and not Agatha.

"Nothing to say?" Miss Gullet asked in her grating voice.

"I've got nothing to say to either of you, except to let me go, please?" Mildred hoped that these two would let her go just this once; she wasn't in any condition to run with the extra weight, there was a chance she'd double over and puke her guts out.

Miss Gullet guffawed and Agatha wasn't far off. "Let you go? Why would we let you go?" Miss Gullet walked over slowly with Agatha flanking her as they backed Mildred into the wall. Mildred closed her eyes when Miss Gullet ran her cold finger gently across her cheek, cursing her inability to properly cast any magic in her current condition.

"Please, let me go," Mildred whispered, waiting for the right moment to scream for help. But if she could keep them talking…..

"I told you before, Mildred, witches don't beg for help-" Agatha began, but the girl interrupted her. "I'm not begging for help, I just want you both to get lost, but how did you two get out? I saw it happen, you were both locked in that photograph by the Great Wizard."

When Mildred had been brought back into the school by Ethel, and the resultant mess afterwards when Agatha had cast that spell over the entire school to reduce it into a pile of bricks and mortar, with Ethel and Esmerelda trapped inside it, she had asked Miss Cackle after the Great Wizard had removed the magic Agatha had tricked Esme into giving her and given it back to the elder Hallow girl and then trapped Agatha and Miss Gullet into the picture. Mildred had asked Ada when the headmistress had been reinstalled in her position and she herself had been reinstated as a student into the Academy whether Agatha and Miss Gullet could ever come back out.

Miss Cackle had told her that the Great Wizard had locked them away with his magic and while it was possible for a powerful witch or wizard to break them out again it was unlikely to happen.

Agatha's smile widened triumphantly. "We just did-"

"No, you didn't," Mildred interrupted, but she quickly shook her head as she tried to control her breathing; she didn't like being cornered like this, the pregnancy had given her a deep desire for her own personal space. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'd have thought that was obvious, Mildred," Agatha purred her name again, but the intense hatred in her eyes made the girl even more frightened.

"What, you're going to try to take over the school again?" Mildred asked, hoping that she was right and not putting too much thought behind the meaning of the dark look she could see in Agatha's face.

Agatha's dark look disappeared, and she became a dead ringer for Ada - hardly surprising, they were twins after all - when the headmistress was happy, but there was a glint in her eye that differentiated her from Ada. "Yes, Mildred."

Mildred sighed. "After what you tried the last time? Many of the girls who saw you nearly destroy the school remembers you casting the spell, Agatha, and they remember how uncaring you were when you turned three of them into cakes, but you then brought the school down. Do you really see them welcoming you back with open arms?"

"They will accept me, Mildred. The code says I as the elder sister should take the mantle of headmistress-" Agatha began, but the girl interrupted her again.

"You've done that before, Agatha, and besides the code doesn't mean you're going to be fantastic as a headmistress," Mildred said, filling her voice with exasperation even as she tried to work out how she could escape. "Yeah, you managed to take the school over, but you couldn't do it without using magic against the other kids, the teachers, and the Great Wizard himself. Do you really think the wizard has forgotten what you've done? Do you see him forgiving you for that? I saw his face when he dragged you slowly to the ground and locked you in that photograph - he didn't look like he was going to forgive you then. I don't know what let you out, but sooner or later the Great Wizard will come after you, and believe me you two will have other concerns to worry about then taking over a school!"

Miss Gullet sneered at her. "Still the babbling chatterbox, I see," she drawled, but there was something behind her confident facade that gave Mildred more confidence herself to keep going.

"But I'm right, and you both know it," she replied, "do you really think no one else knows what you two have done? The pair of you have committed too many crimes-"

"SHUT UP!" Agatha's voice cracked like a whip as she slapped Mildred in the face. Stunned by the blow, Mildred needed to blink furiously to clear her head. While she was doing that, she was completely unprepared when Agatha, still angry but visibly, truly frustrated she didn't have any magic anymore, grabbed her face roughly and squeezed so tightly it hurt.

"You really do talk too much, Mildred Hubble," Agatha spat at her, unaware Mildred was trying to think of a decent spell she could use to get rid of the two of them. But Agatha let go with a hiss of frustration. "What's wrong?" Miss Gullet asked her.

Agatha shot a glare towards the teenager. "I don't have my powers to make her suffer," she replied darkly.

Miss Gullet looked confused. "I do-"

"That's not what I meant," Agatha sneered at her. "We have lost an entire year because of her! Oh, never mind, do the honours, Gullet!"

Mildred looked at her former teacher, hoping that she wasn't going to do it, and the arms around her belly tightened softly as she tried to work out what kind of things Miss Gullet could do. Gullet was like Hardbroom, a professional witch with years of experience behind her, and she had been a spells teacher - there was no telling what harm she could do.

"Please, Miss Gullet, don't," Mildred pleaded.

Miss Gullet's shark-like grin told Mildred she was wasting her time trying to make the woman see sense. Before Mildred could even blink, she was screaming in surprise as Miss Gullet lifted her hand, and sent her up into the air.

Agatha didn't seem impressed while Mildred tried to adjust to her new position of being only a few inches underneath the ceiling. "Is that the best you can do?" she asked Miss Gullet.

"Oh, I've got a few ideas for the little slug, don't you worry," Miss Gullet gave a small cackling laugh, reminding Mildred of all the stories of witches, and the stereotypical image of them in movies, cackling insanely as they tortured and ate children. But right now she was trying hard to hold down the nausea of being sent up here, the last thing she wanted was to vomit again, although the thought of puking on Agatha and Miss Gullet was tempting for her.

"P-please, let me down!" Mildred pleaded.

But her plea fell on deaf ears, and Mildred saw Miss Gullet hold up her hand. The young witch definitely did not like the purple glow of the magic in Miss Gullet's hand, even before the light zigzagged up to her….

Mildred threw her head back as her entire body felt as if someone were holding a blowtorch against her nerves, and she screamed in agony, writhing in pain…..

Miss Hardbroom cast a transportation spell before anybody else could even react, but she didn't know how far away Mildred was to make the transfer accurate enough, so she did what she always did when she sensed students misbehaving - she used her magic to focus on the screams before taking it from there.

The sight that met Hecate's eyes made her freeze momentarily in horror. Mildred was in the air, writhing in pain while surrounded by an aura of purple light, and the girl was thrashing about, screaming in agony with her eyes tightly closed.

Hecate couldn't immediately identify the spell Gullet was using - the former Spell's science teacher may have been corrupted and desperate enough to transform a wizard into a frog just to have his job, but her spell repertoire was slightly better than Hecate's in some areas, though she wasn't a slouch. Hecate raised her hand, but she hesitated slightly. She didn't know what spell Miss Gullet was using to torture Mildred, but she knew that if she used a straightforward sell then there was a chance it could cause Mildred even more pain, so with that in mind she fired a stunning curse at Agatha while preparing to catch Mildred in case Miss Gullet lost concentration on keeping her in the air.

Miss Gullet had been grinning with joy with each delicious moment of holding Mildred suspended high in the air, listening to her screams like they were delicious pastries in the window of a bakery when she saw Agatha be knocked unconscious by what she identified as a stunning curse.

"Agatha!" she cried, turning her head so she could see behind her while keeping Mildred in the air - she might hate the girl, but she knew the dangers of going too far, though realistically she didn't really see the point in worrying about pushing the Witches' code to the very limit since she and her partner had broken so many laws in a short span of time, torturing Mildred was the latest example of two people who had nothing left to lose.

The sight of Miss Hardbroom made Gullet pale slightly.

She opened her mouth to deliver a sneering taunt, but Hecate opened her mouth and spoke in that deadly hiss that made even some of the teachers wary when the voice was aimed at them. "Put. Her. Down!"

Miss Gullet sneered and out of spite, she sent some more magic up to Mildred. The spell crackled with so much magic, and Mildred threw her head back and her screams grew louder, but before Hecate could do anything, Ada, Miss Bat, Algernon, and Miss Drill appeared with their own transfer spells.

"Why should I?" she sneered. "What's one more charge on our records? Besides, this little waste of space deserves everything that's coming to her. She is so pathetic that she can't even defend herself properly from being raped, now she's been knocked up, she deserves to suffer."

"No, she doesn't," Hecate argued, but then Ada and the others managed to break through the spells holding and torturing Mildred. The girl started drifting back down to the ground, panting and shaking from the aftershocks of the torture. When her legs made contact with the floor again, Mildred tottered around and bent her waist as best as she could, trying hard to not feel sick.

"Mildred-?" Ada asked, trying to find the right words to say as she found the question 'are you alright?' to be inappropriate.

The girl waved a reassuring hand, but she clamped her mouth closed shut. Her pale face was grey with a hint of green. Ada was afraid the girl was going to be sick, but after what she'd just been through who could blame her?

Miss Gullet sent a look over at the girl and smirked. "What've we got to lose?" she asked rhetorically. "As soon as we leave, the Great Wizard will hunt us down. I'm not like Agatha, I had a lot of time to think in that stupid photograph. I realised I didn't really care about Cackles anymore, even if I loved the job and the prestige that came from it, but I lost it because of her," she growled, gesturing at Mildred.

The little witch was now standing close to the wall behind her, but her eyes were open and she looked a bit more lucid than before. Mildred was glaring at her with anger shining clearly in her eyes, like sunlight glinting off the surface of a pond.

"But you know something? I realised just how limited your sister really is," Gullet went on, glaring now at Ada. "Seriously? Take over a school because she never inherited it even though she was meant to have it, but was lied too? I mean, come on. How pathetic can you be? I wanted revenge, yeah, but I've almost got it."

"W-what do you mean?" Mildred asked hoarsely. The girl felt as if her throat had been shredded before being knitted back together again and then torn apart again.

The look Miss Gullet sent her made Mildred step back involuntarily.

Recognising what was happening, Miss Hardbroom and the other teachers cried out "NO!" But they were too late.

Mildred was hit in the belly, but the force the impact sent her into the wall behind her, and she knocked the back of her head against the stone of the wall. She was dimly aware of the teachers calling out, and while the pain in the back of her was bad it was nothing compared to the agony she was feeling in her midsection. She was dimly aware of the teachers firing spells at Miss Gullet, but the ex Spells science teacher parried them away successfully before she disappeared, but Mildred couldn't tell.

Everything went black.

* * *

She wasn't sure how much time past, but at first, there was nothing but blackness. Then she saw a little pinpoint of light and she began to wake up from there, but then she felt a little pain in her midsection and in the back of her head, and she gasped aloud. The view from where she was wasn't very interesting, it was just a patterned surface which was quite far away. Was that the sky?

"She's awake!" A voice that seemed distantly familiar to her called out, but she barely heard it. She felt as though her whole head were half submerged in a bath full of water.

A face appeared in front of her eyes, a girl with her hair in bunches and sporting thick round-framed glasses set into a chubby but kind-hearted face. "Mildred, can you hear me?" the girl asked.

Mildred? She thought dimly. Is that my name? Then as the drowsiness disappeared, her memories returned, and completely ignoring the pain in the back of her head, she sat up so fast she almost collided with Maud.

"The baby! Is it alright?" She asked desperately as she looked around the crowded sick ward, rubbing her head which was still aching.

The nurse and Miss Cackle stepped forwards, their faces completely grim. Mildred looked from one witch from the other, feeling absolutely sick to her stomach.

"No…."

Mildred looked down at her belly - she hadn't been pregnant long enough for the baby to give her to much weight, but the signs were there. She had known for a while now she had grown attached the baby even though she knew keeping it wasn't practical but she had planned to meet the child when he or she was old enough to understand why she had given it up. Mildred had been prepared for the crying, the screaming, the name calling and the anger at being abandoned in a foster home, and then she would tell her child its story and why she had let it go.

Whether her child would have accepted that she couldn't have looked after it, or whether she would be hated by her own child for the rest of its life, Mildred would never know now.

"Miscarriage?" She whispered.

The nurse nodded gravely. "I'm afraid so. The spell Miss Gullet used on you sent you flying back, but the force of it hit you in your abdomen. Both impacts were too much for the baby."

Mildred felt as if she was going to collapse. She had been ambivalent about the baby, she had been torn between the logical choice of putting the baby into a foster home and keeping it, but it had still been her child.

"Mildred-?" Maud whispered, unsure what to say, and Mildred looked up at her friend, surprised by the tears welling up in her eyes - when she had discovered she was pregnant, she had been frightened and she had hated what had happened to her, but she hadn't expected the level of love she had had for the child.

"How could she do something like that?" Mildred whispered to no one in the room in particular, but they all knew who she was talking about. "How could she kill a child? That woman was twisted, yeah, everyone knew it - she stole a position from another teacher for 30 years, turned you, Enid and Ethel into cakes, but I never she'd go that far!"

Maud shook her head, and Mildred could see even her own friends didn't know the answer. Hesitantly both girls walked over to her, but Mildred's arms shot out and grabbed them, and when the three friends hugged each other they gave Mildred the confidence to break down crying.

"How did they get out?" Mildred asked. "The Great Wizard locked them in the photo, how did they get out?"

When she had reinstated as a student after HB had expelled her when Agatha had staged her coup, she had asked Miss Cackle if they could get out, and the headmistress, who had been more than happy to talk about it, had told her that the Great Wizard had sealed the spell with his own magic. Miss Gullet had been able to give Agatha her freedom again, and the Great Wizard had wanted to make sure something similar could never happen again.

Ada sighed and stepped forwards - she had wanted to gather Mildred up in her own arms and hug her until the girl needed to breathe again, but her friends were helping her, and besides she was unsure how the girl would feel about her being held by her, the sister of one of her attackers - and she spoke about the Great Wizard's illness and how it had caused his magic to go out of control.

Mildred listened for a few minutes before nodding, though she had no intention of commenting or dwelling on the matter, not when she was this upset. She had been excited at the idea of becoming a mother though she knew she would have needed to give the baby up, she would have still become a mother. Now it was never going to happen.

Mildred bit her lip and closed her eyes. "I can't cope with this right now," she whispered, pulling away from her best friends and rested her head on the pillow. "Can I get something to sleep, please?" she asked the nurse.

The nurse nodded and she hurried away to get a potion to help Mildred sleep. She came back with a small bottle filled with a light, clouded green potion. "This should help you sleep, Mildred, but are you sure you want to sleep at the moment?"

Mildred sighed. "My head is splitting, my insides feel like they've been hit by a battering ram, and I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open. On top of that, the baby is gone; just because I was thinking of putting it up for adoption didn't mean I didn't love it. Part of me just wishes to die after everything I've gone through, but the only thing keeping me going is the thought something great will come round the corner. I am sure I want to sleep."

Although everyone was chilled by the part where Mildred wanted to die, the nurse nodded sympathetically and passed Mildred the bottle, and the girl uncorked it and downed some of the potion in moments before she relaxed and settled into the bed. A few seconds later she was fast asleep. The nurse re-corked the bottle and announced quietly, "The potion should keep her asleep for the rest of the day. In the meantime, I'd leave her to it."

Maud shook her head stubbornly but the nurse stopped her protests in a gentle voice. "No, Maud. It's best not to push her at the moment. Let her be."

Maud and Enid both looked at each other for a moment and then back at their friend, they both wanted to be there for her after what had happened to her, but they knew the nurse was right. They nodded grudgingly and left the ward.

Miss Hardbroom watched them go sadly and turned to Miss Cackle. "Have the police finished?" she asked plainly. She wasn't speaking about the non-magical police of course, but the magical police, trained witches and wizards tasked with upholding and protecting the magical world. As Deputy Headmistress she had been questioned, but Miss Cackle had spoken to them when they'd finished with her, and Ada had told her to go to supervise the rest of the girls.

Ada shook her head. "No, they're still here. They want to speak to Mildred at some point, but they might have to put it off."

"She can't speak to them, not after what's happened!" Hecate argued in a quiet hiss, guilt filling her very soul at the memory of seeing Mildred screaming and thrashing under the torture spell Gullet had cast on her, and the spell that hit her in the abdomen. If only she had gotten there sooner, this could have been avoided.

"She has to. You know the rules, Hecate, and besides, hopefully, they won't speak to her too long."

Hecate didn't think so. "You know the magical police, Ada, you know how thorough they can be."

Ada sighed at Hecate's need to be pragmatic, but she knew it was her own fault for being too hopeful the magical police didn't push Mildred too far. She wasn't looking forwards to that. Mildred had been through a lot, this year and the summer before had been nothing but a disaster for the poor girl.

The two witches walked out of the ward and headed back to Ada's office. Along the way, a few students including Sybil Hallow asked about Mildred.

"Is Mildred okay?" Sybil's eyes were bright with tears and wide with panic - Ada was glad that the younger Hallow had found a kindred spirit in the dark-haired girl though what pleased the aged headmistress the most was how compassionate the younger Hallow was.

"Did she really fight Miss Gullet?"

"Are Agatha and Miss Gullet going to take over again?"

But fortunately most of the questions were about Mildred, but neither teacher said anything to the questions. When they arrived at the head's office, Ada sat in her chair with a sigh. Hecate sat down opposite. It was telling that the taller witch was just as shattered by the events of the day since she usually loomed over the desk.

Ada's eyes were already misted over, the picture of Mildred falling to the ground after being hit by that spell, and discovering the baby was dead, but she looked up when she saw Hecate sniffling. "Hecate?"

"I had the chance to stop her, but I didn't recognise the spell-"

"Hecate, it's not your fault. I should have taken steps to put that photograph away somewhere, I should have never allowed the Great Wizard to hang it up in this office, and better still I should have asked for the pair of them to be locked up," Ada interrupted, rubbing her eyes. "Besides, I never expected Miss Gullet to go that far, but I know this - she and Agatha aren't going to get far."

Hecate nodded gravely. The magical police dealt with the major breaches against the codes of the Witches and Wizards, and Agatha and Miss Gullet had pushed the boundaries of the Witches code when they took over the school, but what they had done today…..

Harming a minor was forbidden. Years ago, magical education was performed by beating the witch or wizard to get the lessons into their minds, but over the centuries it was found to be a disgusting practice and it was banned by order of the Great Wizard of the time. Oh, once or twice the rule was tested - and the perpetrators lost their magic, but the law had become harsher. If Miss Gullet was caught then Hecate, and the other teachers who'd witnessed what she'd done, would be called to a trial, and she would probably lose her life. The Witches' code was extremely harsh when it came to rule breakers, as Ada herself had feared when Mildred had discovered that Alma Cackle had hidden Agatha's birth scroll after seeing how dangerous she was.

But Miss Gullet and Agatha had already broken the code. It was bad enough Agatha had tricked Esmerelda Hallow into giving her magic to her, but turning three girls into cakes, magically attacking and transforming the Great Wizard into a balloon, and nearly destroying the school and killing people inside it broke many tenants of the code. Miss Gullet had only tortured Mildred and then killed the girl's unborn child because she knew she had nothing else to lose.

"Have you heard from the Great Wizard?" Hecate asked, trying hard not to think too much about what fate had in store for the two women.

"I spoke to him before the nurse told me Mildred was about to wake up," Ada replied heavily, also trying hard not to think about what was likely going to happen to her sister, but truthfully a part of Ada could honestly say she no longer cared what happened to Agatha. She had willingly attacked a girl, without magic, who was pregnant, and even if she hadn't been able to cast a spell herself Agatha had still attacked her. "He feels terribly guilty about what's happened to her, but I told him I'd give her his regards, but he is still too ill to move. I had to inform the authorities about what happened to Mildred, standard procedure, and he found out. He contacted me to see if it was true. He was furious when I told him it was so."

Hecate frowned quizzically. "I remember when the Great Wizard visited in her first year, he didn't seem to like her much then," she commented.

"I think he's become fond of her in his own way," Ada smiled before her expression became more businesslike. "Right, we'd better go and tell the girls about what happened."

Hecate frowned in concern. "Do you think that's wise?" She wasn't asking out of concern for keeping the harsh truth from the girls, she wasn't one of those people who believed wrapping girls up in cotton wool and hiding the darkness of the world was a good move, but even she thought what had happened was too extreme.

"Maud and Enid have probably already announced it, but coming from us and explaining the seriousness of the situation will certainly make it clear to the rest of the school how seriously we are taking this mess," Ada answered her, before she remembered what the girls had asked herself and Miss Hardbroom on the way to the office. "Also, I want to clarify what happened to her, so then rumours won't spread throughout the school; Mildred needs our help, not people talking about her being a heroine."

Hecate nodded slowly. Seven minutes later, all of the girls filed into the Great Hall, chatting quietly to themselves as they walked in, much of the conversation was already focused on the days' events. Many of the girls remembered hearing the terrible screaming down the corridor, and they had seen the magical police in the school, and the teachers had been questioned, so lessons had been practically called off. Rumours were circulating throughout the school, some of the girls had heard Mildred Hubble had been admitted to the sick ward of the school, but they hadn't heard anything else.

Maud and Enid had visited her, but they had been upset about something, and many of the girls had begun wondering if the baby was hurt. But neither of Mildred's friends was particularly interested in talking, both of them were quiet. And now Miss Cackle had summoned them all back into the Great Hall.

One look at the usually cheerful headmistress told all the girls that whatever the woman was about to say, it wasn't going to be pleasant.

"As you know, girls, there was an….incident earlier today. As those of you who remember her, yes my sister Agatha and her associate, former Cackles Spell's teacher Miss Gullet, did attack Mildred Hubble. There was no real battle and I won't go into details about what happened, and I ask you do not press Mildred for details, but during the confrontation Miss Gullet, who didn't see that she had anything to lose, fired a spell at Mildred, and she suffered a miscarriage," Miss Cackle said to the students, who instantly began talking to one another, many of them beginning to sniffle at the pain they were imagining Mildred was going through.

Using a spell instead of asking Miss Hardbroom to silence the girls, Miss Cackle's voice virtually boomed out over the hall, stunning the girls into silence immediately. "For those of you who have studied the Witches' code, though all of you should be aware of its many rules, in great detail, you probably know that Miss Gullet's life is forfeit, and I do not know for sure if her prolonged imprisonment has driven her mad or whether the murder was clear-cut revenge on Mildred, but in any case Miss Gullet is now considered a fugitive. The Magic Police take such offences very seriously, and the punishments for such an atrocity are severe. This is not a case where you would lose your magic, or be imprisoned, or transformed into a frog or a toad. The chances are Miss Gullet, and my sister," Miss Cackle added and the hearts of everyone went to their beloved headmistress's evident sorrow, "will be executed for their crimes."

Ada looked sadly at her teachers, remembering how she and her sister had once been as thick as thieves before things went wrong. It still disgusted her that Agatha was willing to go the distance to steal the magic of others, but she knew it was the humiliation of being sent to a school for the worst witches that helped tip the balance and only helped to make Agatha more bitter. Ada wondered if her twin had even planned to kill Mildred's child for getting in the way three times in a row.

"At the moment, Mildred is currently resting in the sick ward. Do not harass her when she returns, don't ask her questions about what happened, but please be there for her. She will appreciate that more than you asking her questions and getting into a subject she truly does not want to deal with."

* * *

"Now, Miss Hubble, can we go back to when you met Miss Agatha Cackle and Miss Gullet outside the bathroom one more time?"

Mildred closed her eyes and did her level best to clamp down the urge to scream. She was annoyed - and, moreover, very bored. She knew from looking at it that the Witches' code was tedious, in many ways more annoying and limiting than the laws outside Cackles and the magical conclaves, but magical investigations were more tedious.

The moment Mildred had woken up, she had gotten out of her hospital wing bed and had gotten dressed in her uniform, but as she'd gotten ready to discharge herself from the wing because she just wanted to get on with her life, three members of the Magical Police had come into the room, escorted by Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom, and the nurse. None of them looked happy at the intrusion, and just by looking their expressions now, she could tell they were just as frustrated as she was.

At first, things had been cordial enough, but then things had begun to change. All three members of the police had made her repeat the story of what had happened to her again and again.

"What's the point? I have already told the story a dozen times by now, I haven't changed a thing. Why are you making me repeat myself time and time again?" Mildred asked, only just managing not to lose her patience.

Ada and Hecate exchanged a look. Both of them had no intention of making Mildred cooperate, they had already heard the story enough times, but they didn't understand why the Magical Police were making Mildred repeat herself constantly. They hadn't even tried to make Mildred change any facet of the story, so it was little wonder Mildred was losing her patience.

"Because we want to ensure you have told us everything, Miss Hubble, we are trying to help-" one of the witches of the group replied, but Mildred interrupted her.

"You have heard me explain what happened a dozen times now, that should be more than enough time for you to have memorised it, word for word," Mildred pointed out, then she pointed over at a notebook with a pen scribbling away under a spell. "You enchanted that pen to copy down the story every time, so you should have a record of what happened. You don't need me to repeat myself. In short, the Great Wizard's illness broke the spell over the photograph imprisoning Agatha and Miss Gullet. They came out, they found me, Agatha spouted on about how this academy was hers by right even though she had never done anything to prove herself as a good headmistress, and then Miss Gullet tortured me before she cast a spell that killed my unborn baby after saying she had had enough of Agatha's obsession with the school. There, happy now?"

"From what we understand, you have 'prevented' Agatha from taking over this school three times now," one of the wizards spoke, his voice sneering a little at the word prevented, "that makes you a bit of a vigilante, doesn't it?"

Mildred bridled at the accusation. "Listen to me, Agatha Cackle is liar, a cheat, she is malicious to everyone including her own family, she used the Witches' code to batter down every protest that came her way, while Miss Gullet transformed three students into cakes, and she and Miss Gullet offered them to the students to eat, then she tried to bring down the entire school with an Annihilation spell. All I did then was get the girls to see what she was really like, and reverse the damage she did. The second time I saw her, she used me to frame Miss Cackle, just so then she could be headmistress here. She nearly made me crash the broomstick I was flying. I don't care if that makes me out to be a vigilante."

"You should because we are here to protect you-"

Mildred tuned them out, now seriously bored to death by what was going on. "Do you have anything else to ask me?" she asked rebelliously. "Otherwise, please go away and stop wasting time, go out and find them."

She had already worked out one of the wizards seemed prejudiced towards her, but she was used to being looked down upon for her heritage it no longer really bothered her as much as it had in the past.

The wizard sighed, "We had hoped you would be mature to answer our questions, Miss Hubble, but it is clear that you are not-"

"You haven't asked me any questions, what the hell are you talking about?" Mildred interrupted before Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom also added their own opinions on the matter.

"She has cooperated with you," HB said, her voice weary with annoyance at how this meeting was going. Mildred could tell that hearing about the way Miss Gullet had injured her was having a terrible effect on Miss Hardbroom even if it was not her fault. Even the Great Wizard could hardly be blamed for this even if he had decided, in a twist of irony, to lock them up in the school they'd tried to take over. How could the wizard have known he would fall ill and they'd escape?

"You're not asking her anything definitive," Miss Cackle added, "if you wish to ask her questions about what happened, do so. But please do you not speak to one of my students in a derogatory manner, and please do not make her repeat the same story over and over again."

The three Magical Police officers looked at each other and then back at Mildred and the others. "What questions should we ask?" The witch asked one of her colleagues in a whisper, but unfortunately, everyone heard it.

"What?" Mildred whispered in disbelief, but she wasn't the only one.

"How long have you three been members of the Magical Police?" Miss Cackle asked.

The three looked at the headmistress sheepishly, but with a touch of pride that didn't do any favours for them. "We have only just graduated from the Training Academy-" the witch replied, but Miss Hardbroom interrupted, her voice a deadly whisper. "You have only just graduated, and you do not know how to question a victim to a terrible crime? You've treated her as a suspect, wasted her time, and made her repeat the same story over and over for no other reason than the fact you don't know how to question somebody? What do they teach you at the Training Academy these days?"

Mildred couldn't believe this. "Hold on, how many other officers of the Magical Police are there in the school at this moment?"

"Two others."

"Are they more senior than you?" Mildred pressed on.

"Yes, but what's that got to do with it?"

"Then why are you three here, why isn't one of them here with you to make sure you don't make any mistakes?" Mildred snapped, but she didn't let them reply. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the Magical Police supposed to investigate crimes?"

The witch nodded, "Yes."

Ada and Hecate looked at each other, recognising the trap these three fools had fallen into, but they didn't try to help the police officers.

"Well, you've failed, haven't you? You have made the biggest error that you could have made - you are not detectives. You haven't asked anything relevant to the case at hand, all you have done is make me repeat the same story over and over again without even trying to ask me something different. Did you make me repeat the story simply because you didn't have anything better to do with your time?"

Mildred looked at Miss Hardbroom. "I've had enough. I don't care, I'm going to my bedroom, if those senior Magical Police officers wish to speak me, and ask me something meaningful, then they can meet me there and speak to me in a civilised manner, but I'm not dealing with these any longer. There are eleven-year-olds in this school who would do a better job than them."

Leaving the hospital ward and stalking towards her bedroom, Mildred just could not believe the fact that three graduates of the Magical Police just could not ask her anything, or do anything different than make her repeat the same story over and over again because they didn't know what else to do. Mildred sighed and entered her bedroom, sighing with relief at the familiar surroundings. Tabby mewed happily at the sight of her, and she picked him up and cuddled the cat to her chest.

She had just settled down at her desk and had started to draw a picture when a knocking came at the door. Mildred sighed, but she truly hoped her visitor was someone other than the Magical Police. "Come in," she called out.

The door opened and her hopes were dashed when she saw the dark uniform of the Magical Police, with Miss Hardbroom right behind him. Mildred studied the wizard speculatively, seeing that he was older than the three morons in the hospital wing. "Miss Mildred Hubble, I am truly sorry for your loss, and what happened to you, and I am truly sorry - I had thought officers Henbane, Ivy, and Stone had enough common sense to properly speak to you, rest assured they will learn how to be investigators if it kills me," the officer said.

Mildred said nothing. She had had enough of the Magical Police for one day.

The officer sighed mentally, realising that the girl was probably not in the mood for anything new. "I have already reviewed your story," he went on, "so I am not going to ask you to repeat it, but I do want to ask some questions - intelligent ones."

"Oh, thank god for that," Mildred braced herself. "Okay," she said.

The questions came to her. What was she doing in the bathroom? How did she feel when she met the two evil witches? What did they talk about? Why didn't she call for help? (That one also garnered interest from Miss Hardbroom - Mildred told them she was scared at the time, but she was waiting for the moment)

But overall the questions were intelligent, and Mildred answered each one of them.

* * *

Thanks for reading.


	8. Chapter 8 Recovery

I don't own the Worst Witch, but please leave feedback since I am trying to write something different here.

My thanks to Marcus S. Lazarus for pointing something important out to me.

* * *

Recovery.

Mildred was just getting ready to leave her bedroom when a knock came. Thinking it was Maud and Enid, Mildred turned and called out, "Yeah, come in."

She was surprised when the door opened and Melissa, Deanna, and Katie hesitantly came into the bedroom.

"Hi, guys," Mildred said quietly, pressing down the guilt she felt within that she had been spending less time with these girls. When she had first met them, it had been a dream come true because Mildred was lonely in Cackles - oh, she had friends, yes, but she wanted friends who had some knowledge of the outside world.

Mildred didn't know for sure if Melissa, Deanna, and Katie had already experienced a taste of what she'd gone through during her first two years, so she did feel quite guilty about leaving these two alone for such a long period.

The three girls smiled shyly. "Is it okay if we come in, Millie?" Katie whispered.

Mildred nodded. "Y-yeah, sure."

The three girls came into the bedroom. "How are you holding up?" Deanna asked.

"I'm doing better, thanks," Mildred replied, though truthfully she wasn't sure how she was feeling - she had tried hard and failed to feel detached being pregnant, of having a new life growing within her, but she had gotten attached. She had tried long and hard to see the baby as an interloper, as a parasite inside her womb that had been forced on her, and that was not a difficult thing to do. Mildred's trouble had been she had thought about the what ifs. Her mind had literally fought a war with her instincts, her primal feelings which told her to nurture the baby and love it despite what its father had done to her.

She had tried to protect the baby and failed, from Miss Gullet's attack. Mildred's mistake there had been she had not expected Miss Gullet to go that far; she had been at Cackles' long enough to study the Witches' code to know witches did not kill children, and while she didn't like the woman, Mildred had hoped she wouldn't go that far.

Looking into the faces of the younger girls made her realise that she would be getting similar or identical questions from the rest of the school. Mildred sighed mentally at the thought of having to repeat herself, on and off.

None of the three first years in front of her seemed surprised by her reply.

"Are you?" Melissa asked, trying to sound her usual confident self, but Mildred knew the girl better than the others in the school did, and she knew that while the girl acted confident, she was actually very wary and very frightened she would make a mistake. But Melissa was important to her, to the other two girls because she kept them together.

"No, I'm not, but what do you want me to say? I lost the baby, I was getting attached to it but I knew I would have to give it up for adoption after I gave birth," Mildred whispered deciding to be truthful.

That was enough for Katie. She darted towards Mildred and wrapped the older girl in a tight but gentle embrace. Mildred wrapped her own arms around the shorter girl and rested her chin on the top of Katie's head. This felt nice. She held out one of her arms to invite the other two to join in, and both girls leapt forward and wrapped Mildred and Katie in a hug.

"Hey, not so hard," Mildred chided playfully when the two other girls had moved with such force she and Katie had nearly been knocked down, but fortunately they'd only been pushed a little.

"Sorry, Millie, but we haven't seen you in a while," Katie whispered.

Mildred did her best not to feel too guilty about putting her own problems above these three who needed all the help they could get while they were attending Cackles. They didn't deserve it.

Deanna saw the guilt on Mildred's face and pulled back. "It's okay, Mildred. We know you had a lot on your plate, and now this…," she trailed off, biting her lip.

"It's okay, you can say it," Mildred whispered. "Now I've lost the baby. It's okay, honestly guys. Now come on, we need to head down for breakfast."

The four girls headed towards the Great Hall. On the way, Mildred exchanged some well-meaning small talk with some of the other girls. All of them had heard about what happened with Miss Gullet, so she wasn't inundated with stupid girls thinking she was a heroine. Mildred didn't want to be a heroine, the reason she stopped Agatha and Miss Gullet during her first year was that it was the right thing to do at the time.

As she walked into the hall she and the girls lined up for their breakfasts. Mildred took a good long look at the limited breakfast ahead, a part of her happy she could now eat normally again. But she was getting used to the different foods when she had been pregnant and her cravings had appeared. She was thankful that her cravings hadn't been too insane, but if there was one thing she'd learnt about pregnancy from her mother it was each pregnancy was completely different.

Mildred met Maud and Enid in the line, but she held up her hand so they could speak at their table. When she'd grabbed her breakfast from a surly Tapioca (she wondered if there was a glint of sympathy in the otherwise grumpy woman's eyes, but Mildred wasn't going to ask in case the woman lashed out), Mildred found a table that was halfway free, and Maud and Enid joined her. Her friend's eyes were sympathetic.

"How are you doing?" Maud asked warily as if expecting anger or tears.

Mildred sighed. "Not bad," she admitted, "physically, at least. I'm still getting used to the fact I'm no longer pregnant. But I was getting so used to the notion of carrying a baby, but part of me is glad I miscarried because I was dreading what was going to come after I delivered the little guy. I was so prepared, Maud, Enid, for a confrontation with my son or daughter when they were old enough to find me. I'd even composed a letter to let them know I didn't make the decision to put them into care lightly."

Maud and Enid hadn't known about the letter part, but they guessed it made sense. "Have you spoken to your mum about this?"

Mildred bit her lip, shaking her head. "I haven't had time. I've been playing games with the Magical Police. When they were here, I was questioned by three of them, but they only made repeat the story a dozen times over. They weren't even professionals. They admitted they were graduates from their academy, and they no expertise whatsoever. To make matters worse, they didn't bother to ask me any proper questions. But I really do want to talk to mum. I'll ask Miss Cackle at some point."

As they ate their breakfasts and were joined by Ethel and Sybil Hallow (Mildred exchanged polite nods to the two blond girls, thankful that Ethel seemed more humane than cruel), there Sybil looked at her and fidgeted.

"What's up?" Mildred asked her, worried.

"I know its awkward, but can I hug you?" Sybil replied shyly.

Mildred blinked, wondering why Sybil wanted to ask permission but then she realised the answer. "Sure, of course, you can," she replied and held out her arms and let Sybil hug her.

"Aw," Enid cooed, making Ethel, who had a suspicious shine in her eye, glare at her.

Mildred smirked. She could see the shine in Ethel's eyes. "You can hug me too if you want, Ethel," she said.

"I do not!" Ethel said before she added, almost as if she trying hard to convince herself of what she was saying, "I want you to get better, and you don't need me for that."

"Hey! Get in here now," Mildred shifted Sybil so then she could hug both girls, and she held out an inviting arm for Ethel. The older blond hesitated but she quickly jumped in. Mildred winced at the force, but she held both sisters in her arms. She held out her arms for Maud and Enid, and the two joined in and soon only the top of Mildred's head could be seen.

Miss Bat came over. "What's this? Breakfast is a time for eating. The most important meal of the day, you know. Well, what're you waiting for? Back to your breakfasts."

The girls broke away. "Yes Miss Bat," they chanted.

The elderly teacher nodded, but when the girls sat down, she hesitantly but gently wrapped Mildred in a hug. "I'm so sorry, Mildred," she whispered before she pulled away.

"Thanks, Miss Bat," Mildred said back with a smile.

The Chanting teacher smiled back down at the girl before she walked away.

"How do you do that?" Ethel asked her curiously. "I mean, the teachers, how do you make them like you?"

Mildred chuckled and shrugged, but before she could reply her mablet chirped. She reached out and read the message with a sigh. "Oh no," she whispered.

"What is it?"

"That psychiatrist Miss Cackle spoke about is here. I've been cleared. My first session is in a few minutes," Mildred replied, reading off what was on the tablet.

"Do you think it will work? Not to be mean or anything, but you have been through a lot," Sybil whispered.

Mildred was a bit annoyed about the reminder, but she knew Sybil didn't mean anything by it. "I know, maybe it will work. Then again it might not."

* * *

As she headed to the headmistress' office, Mildred wondered if the psychiatrist was going to help her. She had to admit the timing was perfect since she had just lost the baby, but she wished the woman had turned up much earlier so then she could get over the residual trauma of the rape.

Mildred knocked on the door to the office, trying hard not to see the woman she was about to meet as a typical psychiatrist, then again she had never met any in her life, but the stereotypical image entered her mind - she pictured the woman in a seat, holding a pad and a pen and jotting down notes while saying meaningless double talk designed to make her feel better for a short time.

Mildred didn't need something like that. She needed something that would make her return to her original state of mind, but even then she wasn't stupid. She knew the world wasn't completely lovely - you only had to watch the news for that.

"Come in," Miss Cackle calling through the door broke her out of her reverie.

Steeling herself, Mildred walked into the office. Sitting in front of the desk and turning around as she walked in, was a woman who was around a couple of decades younger than Miss Cackle.

"Hello Miss Cackle," Mildred greeted, eyeing the stranger who had just stood up with a smile on her face a little warily (she was a little bit embarrassed that she was wary around the woman who was here to help her, but ever since this mess of a year which had followed and even worse summer had started, she found she didn't really care).

Miss Cackle smiled sympathetically at the girl, and while she was unsurprised by it because she knew Mildred was still recovering, she only hoped this wasn't going to keep happening. "Mildred, this is Annabel."

The woman smiled, and to the surprise of both witches she stepped forward and held out her hand, noting the hesitance in the girl's face. "Hello Mildred, I just wish it was under better circumstances."

Mildred looked at outstretched hand in amazement. While witches and wizards didn't avoid shaking hands or saying any of the typical greetings, they had their own greeting custom that Mildred sometimes had problems adjusting to.

She smiled hesitantly at the woman and gently shook her hand. "Hi."

Annabel could see Mildred was wary of her, but unlike Ada, she wasn't particularly surprised, especially after what she had heard about what the poor girl had endured. It just saddened her to see the trauma Mildred had suffered was etched into the girl's eyes along with some of the innocence that was still there. There wasn't a great deal of it left, but it was there. No child should have to suffer like Mildred had, and it wasn't just rape but an actual magical attack which caused the girl to miscarry the baby. One of the important things she would need to do was make sure that a deep-rooted fear of magic hadn't been imprinted into the girl, but she could do that later. The last thing the girl needed was to stop learning magic because of fear.

Annabel was partially thankful that she had done some research into the girl's background thanks to Ada so she was prepared for when she finally met Mildred, though really she hadn't been looking forward to it because of what had happened to her. Rapes were one thing that she and other psychiatrists like her dreaded because it could cause a lot of grief for the child but also the parents.

Annabel let go of Mildred's hand and gestured for the girl to sit down. "Please."

Mildred bit her lip and sat down.

"How do you feel about the sessions we're going to have?" Annabel asked.

Mildred had had a while to think about this. "I think they will be a good idea," she admitted. "I've been bottling my feelings up for a while now."

Annabel nodded. "I see, do you feel ready to talk about it now?"

"Now? What about my lessons?"

Miss Cackle stepped in. "I'll make sure your teachers give your friends your work, Mildred," she said.

Seeing that there was no way out of this, not that she'd expected any kind of wriggle room, Mildred nodded. "O-okay, let's do it," she tried to smile bravely, then she looked around the office. "Are we doing it here?"

"No," Annabel chuckled. "I've chosen your bedroom for the sessions."

"My room, why?"

"Because it is private. It's also filled with your possessions. I always try to visit my patients in a room that has their imprint on it, a place you are familiar with and feel comfortable in," Annabel explained.

Mildred blinked at the unexpected reply. "O-okay, I don't have a problem with that."

"Great!" Annabel clapped her hands gently. "Well, shall we go?"

Mildred nodded, sending a look at Miss Cackle which said that she hoped this did work before she and the psychiatrist left the office together. On their way to Mildred's bedroom, Annabel was clearly struggling to come up with an appropriate conversation. But she held back because she would work it all out when they arrived at the bedroom.

Finally, Mildred stopped at a door and she said, "Here we are."

Annabel smiled as she looked around the room. As a psychiatrist, she had always found it easier to learn more about somebody's personality just by looking at their possessions. She wasn't an artist or one of those people who were interested in art but spoke a load of gobbledegook about art without actually anything meaningful.

All of the drawings and paintings were drawn by someone with a truly sure hand when it came to drawing and art. Many of the drawings were apart from one or two which were sadder than the others were drawn by someone who saw the world optimistically and was drawn and painted with colour. The latest drawings were done by someone who seemed to have become more cynical, there was something darker about some of them, but there were some drawings that seemed to be drawn in much the same vein as those previously. But they were more forced, and the colours were wrong. While bright, they were slightly darker than the previous drawings.

Annabel smiled at the tabby cat lounging carelessly on the bed like it didn't give a damn about what was usually expected of it, a witches' cat. Most cats owned by witches didn't usually care to hang around the sleeping area of the witch, they preferred to go hunting, but there was nothing wrong with a cat that lounged around. That was just the way the cat thought.

She turned her attention to Mildred. "I think you'd better lie on the bed, Mildred," she instructed, and she waited until the girl had done as she was told and she conjured a chair next to the bed before addressing the girl.

"Mildred, how much do you know about magical therapies like psychology?" Annabel asked.

Mildred frowned at the question quizzically. "Er, nothing. Why? Is it dangerous?"

Annabel sighed. "It isn't dangerous. Basically, we will visit the memories of your rape, and of the attack." There were other things Annabel wanted to look at of course in order to help the girl, but she didn't want to overwhelm Mildred.

The witch psychiatrist expected refusal, so she wasn't surprised with Mildred's reaction.

Mildred looked at her aghast. "What?" she whispered. "No, absolutely not!"

Annabel bit her lip. "Mildred, in the magical world psychiatrists use this technique to help them see the events in question. I will be putting you into a trance to begin with-."

"No, you are not!" Mildred hissed in outrage and she stood up, but Annabel groaned impatiently, muttering to herself, "Why do they sometimes have to be so difficult?" Annabel then raised a hand and flicked it at Mildred, the girl barely having time to react before everything went black -

Mildred blinked in surprise as she found herself in the same place where she had been raped so many months ago. She shivered and hugged herself, realising she was wearing her uniform without a cloak - not that the cloak would do much good since the ones issued to the students were more for show than to protect the witch from the cold.

But Mildred was shivering from something more than the cold. She hated thinking about this night, she had revisited it more than enough times. She was angry that Annabel was even doing this. As the seconds rolled by Mildred realised that everything seemed…frozen, it was like time was standing still.

"So this is where it happened?" Annabel's voice made her jump, and she turned to glare at the woman. Mildred was angry, not just for the cavalier manner Annabel had posed her question when it must have been obvious that this was where it happened, but she was angrier that the woman had poked her way through her mind.

"You had no right to bring me here-," Mildred started to say but Annabel sighed and held her hand up. "Mildred, I have every right to see to your mental and physical wellbeing. Magical peoples discovered a long time ago the spoken word, while mighty and commonplace, only did so much. The best thing was to see the event from the view of a passerby. Did you really think speaking to you about the events would help? Please, I know you don't have any reason to trust me after what I've done, but bear with me."

Mildred clenched her fists, wishing she had the knowledge to get out of this hell, but she didn't. "Fine," she growled out, frustrated.

Annabel sighed under her breath, wishing that there was an easier way to help. But she knew there wasn't one. "Alright," she whispered, making a mental note to speak to Ada about her not informing Mildred about the psychiatric treatments.

She flicked her hand, and the world started moving once again. Mildred started shaking as she saw herself, her younger self, walking back home after that dreadful party with her old friends. She felt as though her stomach had taken in a massive chunk of ice when she saw the hooded man approach her younger self. The cold she was feeling in the memory turned to terror when she saw the back of the hooded man approach her only to grab her hair from behind.

Mildred clapped her hands on her face as she watched herself being punched in the gut, slapped around, and having her trousers torn off by the thug who'd started this whole mess. She spared a glance at Annabel and saw the sadness in the woman's eyes. The witch noticed her young patient's look.

"I've seen the memories of this so many times," the woman explained softly. "It never fails to amaze me how cruel people can be."

As the scene went on Annabel and Mildred watched as the man smacked her hard when the younger Mildred tried desperately to cast a spell to get him to stop.

Annabel glanced at Mildred. "You tried to use magic to get him to stop."

Mildred nodded. "Yeah, it didn't work," she pointed out, unable to hide the anger and sadness in her voice.

"But you tried to get him to stop," Annabel pointed out. "You had the presence of mind to use your powers to get rid of him-."

"I was trying to turn him into a slug," Mildred interrupted, gazing solemnly at the woman. "Only another witch or a wizard could reverse the spell, the chances of that happening were remote. I don't know if I'd have turned him back, or whether I would have just left him to rot out here."

Annabel lifted an eyebrow at the admission, but she didn't think it made any difference. "What if I told you there is nothing in the Witches' code that says you need to worry about any repercussions if you had cast that spell? The code is there to protect and guide witches and wizards, but if the situation calls for it then the witch will not be punished for transforming an attacker into anything."

Annabel looked deeply into Mildred's brown eyes. "Perhaps you feel ashamed of being raped because you tried to cast a spell, but failed," she suggested.

Mildred didn't know what to say about that. She had never really had a lot of time for the Witches' code any more than she had had time for the Great Wizard himself, but finding out she wouldn't have been punished for using a transformation spell on the rapist once she'd cleared the air about the attack eased her mind somewhat. She had been so desperate that night to escape from the rapist and from whatever he had planned for her that she had tried casting that spell, her mindset being she would worry about the consequences later while focusing on the problem at hand.

She didn't trust herself to speak so she turned back on the scene, doing her best to drop whatever emotion was on her face. Annabel watched the girl's face become stony and faced the scene herself.

Annabel was relieved when the rape was over. She had seen the memories of dozens of crimes committed against both boys and girls, and they never failed to make her physically unwell. But seeing the utter helplessness of Mildred Hubble, and hearing the way she screamed and cried while the rapist's semen leaked from her backside, threatened to make her cry.

She hated this. No matter how many times she had seen rapes occur, some of them more vicious than the one she was seeing at the moment, they were never easy.

Annabel had a lot of experience in matters of violence such as this. But she hated to admit it but she had seen witches and wizards just give up even though they had the power to free themselves. She was proud that Mildred had tried making the effort to break free. As she thought about it, Annabel had a feeling she had worked out one of the reasons why the girl's attitude had become surly according to the reports she had gotten from Ada.

Hesitantly she put her hand on Mildred's shoulder to comfort the girl, expecting the girl to push the hand away after making her see all of this again, but she was grateful that the girl let her hand stay on her shoulder, but her feeling of reassurance was gone completely when she saw Mildred's expression.

She looked like a statue, but when the scene progressed to the point where Mildred's younger self-returned to the flat where she and her mother lived, Annabel was delighted the girl had a mother who instantly took charge of the situation. When the scene ended, Mildred and Annabel found themselves in a dark, gunmetal grey void.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that again, Mildred, but it had to be done," Annabel whispered before she looked at her folded hands. "I've seen rape cases before, more times than I would care to think about. I would give anything to wipe my memories so then I can block them out of my mind permanently."

"Why don't you?"

"Believe me, it is tempting," Annabel replied wondering if Mildred was being deliberately foolish when she'd asked that question. "But I daren't; if I erase or block the memories of what I see, how can I help those in need?"

Mildred winced, feeling foolish for asking such a stupid question. "I see your point," she conceded. "But I don't think I learnt anything new about the rape-."

"You say that, but actually we saw a great deal. I shouldn't tell you this, but I have seen rape memories where the child who was tortured sexually was magically bound so they couldn't use their magic to do more than tickle the rapist," Annabel interrupted. "Your attacker was non-magical and didn't know he was raping a witch. You tried to cast a spell to escape whereas the other magical children were attacked by witches and wizards themselves who were depraved and sick enough to break some of the most sacred parts of the codes were held by magic and gave up trying to escape. That's one of the downsides of being a witch; we're so used to using magic that when its taken away, or think its taken away, we can't really cope. You can. You weren't born in our world, and you tried to scream and wriggle away."

Mildred licked her lips. "So you're saying that even though I got raped I did more to try to escape than anyone else?"

"Pretty much though some children had the presence of mind to try anyway. The reason you have been in a bad mood, particularly around the beginning of term wasn't just to do with the rape, was it?"

Mildred glared at the woman. "I thought psychiatrists were supposed to be tactful."

Annabel chuckled. "We are," she replied, "but sometimes its best to be direct. This is tough love therapy - the only way to help you is to be tough so then you don't clam up. You haven't answered my question, it was because you hadn't tried using too many spells and escaping that you've been angry, am I right?"

Mildred glared at her again but conceded with a nod. "Yeah," she admitted quietly. Once she had started she couldn't stop. "I was so angry I couldn't have stopped him, so many people have told me I was useless as a witch and I thought I'd come a long way since my first year. I tried to stop him but I couldn't."

"That doesn't mean you're hopeless, Mildred. Dozens of children have gone through what you have, and some of them had magic but it made no difference," Annabel whispered feeling her heartbreak for the girl, though it had been steadily breaking during the whole course of this session. She had asked about Mildred from several members of staff, and it was clear that while the girl wasn't seen as the best witch, they had mellowed a bit and saw the girl as charming. It hurt them to see her in this state.

Reaching a decision, Annabel flicked her hand to cancel the memory sequence and the two witches to return to the waking world.

Mildred woke up from her trance and rubbed her eyes. She saw Annabel looking at her sadly. "I was hoping to get through both memories today, that way we could speak about them in later sessions," Annabel admitted, "but I think we can put that off for a little while, don't you?"

Mildred nodded. She didn't have any real desire to view her memories, especially the baby being killed by Miss Gullet. "Sure thing, I don't really want to see anything else," she muttered.

But Annabel was not finished. "I know you don't want to do this, Mildred," she said, "but do you feel up to talking before you have to go to class?"

Class. It seemed like she had not stepped foot in any of the classrooms in the school, but Mildred pushed that aside. "I guess," she whispered, inwardly thinking that she didn't have much choice in the matter.

Annabel smiled at the girl. "Okay," she said.

When Mildred was comfortable, Annabel began the next stage of the session. She had hoped that both memories could've been shown, but she decided that could come later. Besides Mildred didn't particularly want to spend any more time in a trance, and Annabel could not blame her. It was her job to make this as positive as possible.

"Alright, we've seen the rape together," Annabel began, "and I've read the reports about what occurred before and after the rape, but could you please give me the story in your own words?"

Mildred glanced at her while she was lying in the stereotypical position any psychiatrist would want their patient. "You mean what I was doing that night, you want me to tell you?'

Annabel nodded. "Yes please."

"Okay. I had a few friends outside Cackles, but we weren't really that close. When my best friend here, Maud Spellbody, crashed into the balcony of my flat, and I discovered magic existed, my friends and I were already distant. We'd started drifting apart; at first things were okay, but as we grew older, we found we had different interests, and in fact, many people saw me as weird," Mildred said, though it was a difficult admission.

Annabel frowned, "Why did they think you were weird?"

"I dunno," Mildred replied. "It could be because they were into boy bands, but I wasn't. I preferred art and music that was softer instead of bang, bang, bang, writing stories about fantasy, and they didn't."

Annabel was intrigued but she decided it wasn't really relevant now. "Okay, but why do you think they invited you to a party?"

Mildred bit her lip, racking her brains for a possible answer. "I still kept in touch with them, well a little bit; Miss Hardbroom confiscated my mobile phone on my first day, but I did keep in touch with them, but it became harder and harder to find any common ground. Anyway, they invited me out to a party. There was alcohol, but I wasn't there long - I was only there for an hour, I think, and then I made my way home. When I got to the party, my old friends were happy to see me but we were awkward. Well, I became invisible to them later and so I left. I felt like I was stranger, so I didn't see any point in staying."

Annabel nodded. "How does that make you feel?"

Mildred sighed. "If I'm honest I'm not really bothered," she confessed. "I mean, we had stopped being friendly, and they had begun treating me like I was invisible half the time when we were at school together. I dunno, maybe in the future they might grow up a bit and try to speak to me, but I just want to focus on becoming a witch. But if that does happen, I don't know for sure what will happen. Not only would I be a witch, but I'd have different friends. We'd be strangers."

Annabel was a little bit upset for the girl, but she admired her drive, her desire to move on. "What were they like at the party?"

"They were friendly at first, but like I said I was invisible after a few minutes," Mildred replied sadly, wondering inwardly if she would start seeing the same thing happening between herself and the friend's she had made at Cackles.

"After you were…..raped," Annabel stumbled over the word as she tried to move on with her questioning. "Did you tell them what happened?"

Mildred shook her head in answer. "No. I didn't speak to anybody about the rape apart from my mother and the police," she said, "I was ashamed about what had happened. I knew it was dangerous out there, I knew that people could get their throats slit or beaten up, but I was just so ashamed, and its like you said, Annabel, I was ashamed I couldn't cast a spell after coming such a long way in the past year."

"But if you had contacted your old friends, how do you think they would have reacted if they heard what happened to you?" Annabel pressed.

"I don't know," Mildred said before she expanded on her answer. "They would probably feel sorry for me, but I don't know what they'd have done if they had heard. They didn't call me after that night."

Annabel wondered if Mildred's friendships were that bad, but that didn't bother her that much. She moved on. "Okay. The police. Do you think they'll catch him?"

Mildred frowned. "I don't know," she replied; she was beginning to hate that reply, which seemed to be repeated nearly every minute. "They've had months, but you have to bear in mind the rapist who attacked me had gone in prepared - he had something to cover my eyes, and he had things to stop me moving or calling for help. He knew he was going to rape someone that night, and now he's probably hiding or something. The only way the police can catch him is if they find another victim with his DNA all over them."

Annabel winced a little at the image. "How do you feel about them catching him?"

Mildred blinked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you think he will be caught, and what would you feel if they did catch him? Would you feel angry that he wasn't found sooner, or just glad he was caught?"

Mildred was quiet at the questions Annabel was asking her, and she considered for a second before she replied. "I hope he is caught," she said, "and if they did catch him, I'd be thankful because it means other girls won't be raped by him. I don't know if I'd be angry if he isn't found and arrested soon, but if he was caught I would be glad, even if it takes another decade."

Annabel nodded. "After you were raped, how did you feel, how did you take it?"

Mildred took a deep breath, she had been practically broken since she had witnessed the rape happening from the witnesses point of view, but she had found it easier to speak about what had happened to her after Ethel had made her recount the story in the Great Hall.

"I always wanted to know why he chose me," Mildred admitted, "I also found myself wondering why he couldn't have raped someone else. I never thought I would ever wish anything like that on anyone, but after going through it, I did. I wished it had happened to somebody else, but I still feel bad about thinking that way."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Annabel said, "I imagine everyone thinks the same when they've been raped."

Mildred hoped she was right.

"Do you think the rape was your fault, Mildred?" Annabel asked.

Mildred was silent for a second as she mentally thought through the question. "No," she said at last. "I thought at first he'd targeted me deliberately, but I quickly realised he was going to rape someone that night, and that someone turned out to be me."

"Why did you think he'd targeted you at first?"

"I think its because I was the convenient target. I was partially drunk that night, I was alone with no-one around me, but I think it wouldn't have made any difference. If I'd left the party with one of the other girls, it wouldn't have made any difference. He would have raped both of us; he'd have had a bit of trouble, but he could have done it."

Annabel found it was interesting how the girl had come to suspect she had been targeted deliberately for a time but had changed her mind.

"Did you tell your mother this?" she asked.

Mildred nodded. "Yeah, but she didn't see it. The logic, I mean. I didn't tell anybody what I was going to be doing that night, and even when I was explaining the reasoning to her, I realised I was being stupid."

Annabel decided to move on. "When did you and your mother suspect you were pregnant?"

Mildred took a deep breath as she remembered that point. "It wasn't long after I'd been raped, but I think mum and I were in denial. But….. not long after the rape itself, mum and I were chatting about nothing while I was on the internet. I was looking up rape and the probable outcomes of it."

"And you found pregnancy?"

"Among other things, yes," Mildred said, "anyway, mum and I talked about it. Mum's a nurse at the hospital, and as I broached the subject, I saw that she was worried I was pregnant. In the end, we decided we would wait and see whether or not I was pregnant and take it from there. Mum made me look up the symptoms of pregnancy, but she would bring a pregnancy test to the school during Parents evening. Afterwards, I would tell the teachers what had happened."

Annabel saw the flaw in that plan instantly. "Did you really believe that it would be simple that way?"

Mildred knew what she meant, the transportation incident. "If I'd known at the time magical transportation would make me sick because of the pregnancy, I would have told Miss Cackle or Miss Hardbroom, but I didn't. I was trying to deny what had happened to me."

"What about men in general, how did you feel about them?"

Again, Mildred knew what that meant. "I was afraid of them," she said.

"You were worried they would rape you again even if they didn't look twice at you?" Annabel said.

"Yeah. I didn't see the rapists face, but every time I saw a man I wondered if he was the one," Mildred admitted, "but I knew I was being stupid, I was just instinctively afraid."

"There's nothing wrong with that, Mildred," Annabel said soothingly. She didn't have any intention of pressing Mildred too deeply on the matter, but she made the mental note to make the girl think about the matter before the next session. "What about Mr Rowan-Webb?"

Mildred felt ashamed of how she had viewed the wizard teacher when she'd gotten back from the summer holiday, or as she called it, the summer hell.

"I think by then my fear of men had become instinctive," Mildred replied. "I've never been afraid of him, I helped him get out of the pond after he was turned into a frog by Miss Gullet."

The session went on for another hour before Annabel decided it was time to finish up.

"So, how are the sessions going?" Maud asked her later in the week.

Mildred was silent for a moment. She had been seeing Annabel for the last two weeks now, and they had witnessed not just the rape and the meeting with Agatha and Miss Gullet, but also the blow up in the Great Hall, how she had lashed out at her schoolmates especially towards Ethel and Felicity, and they had talked about the incidents afterwards.

Mildred had assumed incorrectly that the woman would only speak to her about the tragedy of the baby's death and the rape, but she had been wrong - so many things had come out of the whole mess that gave Annabel a vast amount of work to do. Mildred had been wary of the woman at first and her worries had been 'confirmed' when Annabel had put her into the trance, but she had grown to like the woman who only spoke to her after each memory was shown.

The great thing about Annabel was she spoke a great deal of sense, she spoke in a way Mildred could understand, and what was even better was she wasn't one of those holier than thou witches who pretended to be ignorant of the outside world and deliberately made life difficult for her. Miss Hardbroom had been like that, but it was over time the woman had mellowed. Annabel was a lot like Miss Cackle and Miss Pentangle in that she made life more pleasant.

"They're going well. Annabel and I went through a few things yesterday," Mildred said at last, though she had learnt that under the Witches' code there was a clause that said when a witch was seeing a psychiatrist, it was not a good move to tell other people what was being said never mind seen. She was thankful there was some form of psychiatrist-patient confidentiality in the magical world.

"Do you feel better about them though?" Maud pressed.

Mildred nodded. "I've been bottling everything up for months. I've lashed out, violently, towards my classmates, treated the teachers with suspicion, been moody and unpredictable. All the time I was covering up my fear of what happened to me, and my shame as well."

"You had nothing to be afraid of, Mildred," Enid said.

"I know. Everyone's been brilliant since that day Ethel made me tell the story," Mildred said. "You've been fantastic, the teachers have been great and supportive, even Ethel has been nice."

Maud and Enid glanced at each other, hoping that it lasted. When Ethel's attitude had changed after it had come out Mildred had been raped and their friend had told Miss Cackle not to punish her, things between Mildred and Ethel had mellowed out. Maud hoped that Ethel would stop blaming Mildred for everything that went wrong for her and stopped using Mildred as a punching bag and found some other way to get rid of her frustrations when her parents said or did something stupid.

Mildred saw the look but said nothing about it. She had decided to give Ethel the benefit of the doubt in this case, and she hoped that in time the blond would find another means to deal with her parents' attitude.

* * *

As the months passed Mildred became more settled and more or less back to the way she had been before the whole disaster happened. Thanks to Annabel's tender loving care, Mildred definitely felt better than she had in months. She had always been ashamed of being ashamed of how she'd handled the aftermath of the rape.

She wished she had told Miss Cackle and the rest of the staff in confidence about what had happened to her over the summer holiday, but truthfully she had received a lot of care from them and her friends.

Mildred was presently in her room idly drawing a sketch. She had already done her finished her exams, so she had some free time to herself. When she had been doing her revision, she had used the time to give her mind something to do. But now the exams were finished and everyone would be going home for the summer, she had little to do.

Thinking of the summer made her apprehensive. After her second year drew to a close, she had thought and hoped for a time of relaxation and fun, but all she'd gotten was pure hell. Mildred instantly shut her eyes, trying not to think of anything that could really hurt her over the summer. She put the drawing away and she rested her head on the pillow.

"I will not think about anything bad happening to me over the summer," she chanted to herself, "I will not think about anything bad happening to me over the summer."

There was a knock at the door. Mildred sat up. "Yeah?"

The door opened and Miss Hardbroom appeared in the doorway. Mildred's eyes crinkled in surprise, Miss Hardbroom had become more polite over the term. In the past, she had rarely bothered coming in through the door.

"Hello Miss Hardbroom, is everything all right?" Mildred asked a little worried.

Miss Hardbroom shook her head. "No, I just wanted to see how you were," she said.

Mildred did her best to smile. "I'm okay, thanks."

Unsure if she believed that, Miss Hardbroom glided over to the bed, and to Mildred's surprise the older witch sat down. Tabby yowled in greeting, and Hecate gently stroked the cat. Mildred smiled at the way her cat's back arched while she watched the older woman. She was awkward. "Mildred, I'm sorry I didn't stop Miss Gullet from injuring you-."

"Why are you pushing yourself into this? It wasn't your fault, if you hadn't turned up I could've been stuck to the ceiling forever, or worse I could've puked and it could've lodged in my throat," Mildred pointed out.

A little annoyed by the interruption but pushing it aside, Hecate had to admit the girl had a point there but she still felt bad. "I'm just sorry about your baby," she whispered.

"I am as well, but you know something? I was terrified of what that baby would become. I was so frightened that the baby would grow up resenting me for abandoning it," Mildred replied before she shook her head. "I'm not ready to be a parent, and I was sickened that that thing that raped me made me pregnant. But I grew to care about the baby. I didn't want it to die."

Mildred looked away, and because she couldn't see the girl's face, Hecate Hardbroom simply didn't understand what the girl was thinking. "I just want to go back to how I was," Mildred whispered and Miss Hardbroom had to strain herself to hear her, but she didn't need to when Mildred looked at her, and Hecate's heart ached. The look on Mildred's face, usually so cheerful, was dark and solemn. "But it will never happen."

Hecate felt her heartbreak, but she was annoyed Annabel hadn't really done much good, but Mildred surprised her with what she said next. "But that doesn't mean I can't move on; I never asked to be hurt, but I was, but I can be better."

Mildred smiled, and Hecate did likewise.

* * *

Next chapter will bring some happiness.


	9. Chapter 9 Bad Night

This is my final chapter. Thank you all for reading and enjoying my story. I hope you continue to read and like the others I'm writing, and what I will write in the future.

* * *

Bad night.

Ethel shared a happy smile with her big sister Esmerelda. Both Hallow girls had managed to slip out of their mansion so they could have some time between themselves, though if Sybil was older than 12 then she would've been included. The blond girls had chosen a night where their parents would be out on business while Sybil herself was staying with friends for the night, so the older girls had the place to themselves. The Hallow sisters relished the chance to go out and just be normal teenagers instead of porcelain dolls their parents liked to see on the shelves, though sometimes the two sisters would just stay at home and watch a movie or something since the mansion would be quiet enough for that.

The Hallow sisters knew that their parents wouldn't be home until late and since they'd taken Sybil with them they didn't have to put work off earlier than they would have liked, so they had enough time to be out, and they were going to try and enjoy themselves. One of Esmerelda's biggest fears was her parents' business empire when it came for her to inherit it, would make her work on it 24/7, something she was afraid of. While being the eldest had some perks, they didn't outweigh the issues that came with it, but Esmerelda wasn't going to let those issues bring her down tonight. Tonight she and her sister were going to try to have some fun to themselves, especially after the past year.

Esmerelda was happy that Ethel and Mildred seemed to have settled their little feud, especially since Ethel had learnt that actions have consequences. The elder sister knew that her younger sister had been deeply ashamed of what she had made Mildred reveal to the entire school, but Mildred could easily have let Ethel be punished for what she had done. In the past, Esmerelda had always managed to make Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom back off a little bit when Ethel did something unbelievably stupid, but when Ethel had cornered Mildred and the story of the rape had come out, Esmerelda had had no intention of stopping Miss Cackle from punishing the girl. She had been so heartily sick and tired of Ethel pushing and goading Mildred, and while Esmerelda had wanted to know herself why Mildred seemed to be acting up, she had decided to let the girl get over it, she had been horrified by the story.

Ethel had come a long way in the past term, and Esmerelda was proud of her for outgrowing her childish tendencies, but she still had a long way to go. Esmerelda didn't have that many years at Cackles left, and she wanted to leave both of her sisters happy when she did. Esmerelda rolled her eyes, who was she kidding? Her sisters always got into fights while she tried to break them up, and she knew once she was no longer around the silly arguments would get worse, and the teachers would not stand for them.

"You okay, you look tired?" Ethel's voice broke through Esmerelda's reverie.

The older girl smiled at Ethel. "Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, deciding not to tell her sister about what she'd really been thinking about, and decided to tell her a total lie. "I'm trying to push my parents' lessons out of my mind."

Ethel had never really understood what life was like being the eldest child, but for Esmerelda she was constantly being forced to take part in opera nights, competitions with other witches and wizards and expected to win no matter what, but most of all she was forced to come and attend business meetings so she could see for herself how her parents' business worked. That was straightforward enough. Esmerelda was not the only witch child who had to go through something like that; she had lost count of the number of times she had met other witches and wizards on the same broom as her, and like her they had been expected to sit quietly and take notes about how their parents pitched business ideas, explained the product, and discussed the numbers while their children looked on and acted as invisible ornaments that were just there to observe. Esmerelda had never been given a choice in the matter. Her parents had always made sure she adhered to the code like a sticking spell, and that meant she had no wriggle room to break free, so moments, where she wasn't studying up for a competition or attending a business meeting or even learning about the Hallow family business for the twelfth time in a row, was more than welcome to the teenager.

For some reason, Ethel had got it in her head that the time she spent with her parents weren't as bad as Esmerelda protested they were. What made it all worse was how their parents and the teachers lauded her achievements when all Esmerelda had done was study, not realising that the teenager would actually prefer spending some of her time making friends and having fun.

"Come on, let's go and get something to eat," Esmerelda said before Ethel could say anything that dimmed the mood. "I could do with something sweet, or fatty."

The Hallows weren't really bothered about what their children ate outside of meals, but they did frown on too much fatty or sugary treats. It wasn't really a case of their children's health that concerned their parents, it was because they wanted their children to be fit and light enough to ride a broomstick. In theory, their magic should have been able to burn through whatever gunk was left in the body, but the elder Hallows didn't really care about that. It was rare for the Hallow sisters to even indulge, they couldn't do it at Cackles, but they could do it at intervals at home. Ooh, Ethel thought to herself as they headed off to find something to eat, Sybil is going to be sooo jealous.

* * *

During their little outing, the two sisters had eaten enough sugary and fatty foods to fill them up for three days, but they avoided any place that sold alcohol; the memory of how Mildred had broken down and told everyone how she had drunken some gin and become dopey enough to caught unawares by a rapist. The teenagers inside the Hallow girls wanted to be spontaneous and daring, but they weren't that daring, and besides, they had plenty of time and there would be many more nights like this one. No rush.

The Hallow sisters finally decided to return home after a few hours, and they began to head back. They weren't that far from the mansion, but it was still a long way, and both girls were determined to learn the transportation spell as soon as they could. The girls were prepared for the long walk home when they sensed someone behind them, but the two girls didn't pay any attention to them, and then they felt a pain in their necks like a needle being jabbed into their skin and then everything went black.

Esmerelda felt cold as she began to come to. "Ethie?" she muttered to herself, blinking her eyes rapidly. Everything was incredibly hazy for the young witch, and as she turned her head from side to side her vision cleared and her heart virtually stopped when her vision had cleared enough for her to make out what was happening when she heard a moan to the side. "Esme?"

Esmerelda looked in the direction of the moan, and her heart stopped when she saw her sister looking dizzily from side to side, much like she herself had, but Esmerelda could see that she and her sister were both lying on top of a bed, tied to top and bottom, completely naked. "Ethie, I'm here," Esmerelda said desperately.

Ethel's head turned in her direction. "Esme? W-what's happening?"

"I don't know but we've got to get out of here," Esmerelda replied, desperately looking around the room, hoping to find their clothes. But she took in the room itself. Done up in green, brown and beige, with the only source of light being a lamp, which highlighted the shadows of the room. The room was filthy. There were pizza boxes littered on the ground, beer and soft drink cans shoved into little piles in the corners of the bedroom, which stank badly.

The only way out of the room was a single white door. There was a window without curtains to the side, and Esmerelda somehow realised she and Ethel were at the top of a block of flats; she could see another flat block not far away, she could see the square points of light. Esmerelda wondered if she and Ethel were on the same estate as Mildred and Julie Hubble, and her heart went cold as she considered the possibility and the likelihood of the rapist who'd raped Mildred lived nearby, but it was not unexpected, really.

"Esme, what's happening?" Ethel whispered, her voice scared. Esmerelda swallowed her own fear, if only for her sister's sake, and she was about to use a spell to break them both free so they could leave this flat when the door opened and a man entered wearing a dressing gown. He was stocky, with a scrubby beard and short, messy hair, and his dark eyes were set into his Caucasian skin.

"Who are you?" Esmerelda asked, "What do you want?"

She wasn't stupid, but if she could keep him talking long enough then either she or Ethel could cast a spell together or by themselves to deal with him and get out at the same time.

The man smiled. "I want you two," he said, his eyes scanning the two naked girls on the bed, and he licked his lips, making his intentions more than obvious to them both. Esmerelda swallowed a little in fear. This was a nightmare, something she hadn't even imagined happening to her or her sister. She was about to cast a spell when the man went on. "You know, I've had to wait months since last summer to have another go. I mean, that brunette bitch was cute and all, but I rushed it that night."

"Brunette…?" Ethel whispered, her eyes wide with horror. "It was you."

The man's face crinkled in surprise. "What was me? You mean, you know that stupid brunette girl?"

"Mildred," Esme whispered.

"Whatever her name was, she was a good lay," the man grinned crookedly, or at least he tried to grin roguishly but the Hallow sisters weren't amazed. "And now you two are here."

"How did you get us up here?" Ethel asked shaking her head in frustration. "We're at the top of a building, and unless you brought us in one at a time, you'd have been seen-."

"I knocked you both out," the rapist shrugged casually like it made no difference, "and I brought you both here. You were coming in and out of unconsciousness. I told everyone on the way who saw me that I was helping you."

"You're lying!" Ethel sneered, but Esmerelda knew her sister well enough to detect the uncertainty in her voice. She herself didn't think he was lying, they were both in his flat, they were both naked on his bed and bound to it so they couldn't escape. He was probably telling the truth.

The rapist seemed bored by the line of questioning, it was clear he didn't really care about what they believed. "Does it matter now?" he asked. "You're here, and by the time I let you both go, who knows, you might have a baby blasted into you." The rapist grinned in a disgusting manner that made both girls grossed out.

But what made Ethel and Esmerelda feel sicker was how casual the rapist had described what he was going to do with them.

"What if we told you we know the girl you raped?" Ethel sneered, ignoring her sister's urgent attempts to shut her up.

"Ethie, what are you doing?" Esme hissed frantically while Ethel ignored her.

The rapist chuckled. "Do you really? How nice, but I don't care." The man paused a little, glancing between one blond to the next as he tried to work out which sister he should rape first when, as if magic answered their prayers, there was the sound of a door being smashed in and a voice yelling out "POLICE!"

Esmerelda and Ethel looked at one another and screamed, "We're in here!"

The rapist growled at them, but he was panicky and surprised by the police's arrival but before he could anything to deal with the situation, the door to the bedroom burst open and three police officers rushed in and grabbed the squealing man who protested his innocence though there were two naked teenagers on the bed, and yanked him out of the room.

Fortunately for the Hallow girls, the police officers who came into the room to untie them kept their eyes firmly on the job, and they were quickly handed their clothes. They had been taken off delicately and put in the other room.

A short woman with her hair cut into a neat but sharply severe bob approached them. "I'm DCI Delia Porter, I'm glad you're alright," she said.

"So are we," Ethel replied, keeping the reflex greeting traditional to magical people to herself.

"How did you know what he was doing?" Esmerelda asked curiously.

DCI Porter (the sisters didn't know what DCI meant, but they imagined it was something important) smiled grimly. "We've had this estate under watch ever since that teenager was raped the last summer-," she said, but Ethel interrupted her.

"Mildred Hubble, we know her, we go to the same school," she said.

DCI Porter's expression softened. "I met her," she said, "she's a nice girl, and you could see her world had been shattered by that bastard. Anyway, we kept a watch on the estate during our investigation." The woman's expression darkened in disgust. "That filthy animal just cannot keep his dick to himself," she added.

"What, you mean he's done it since Mildred?"

"Yes. He raped someone on the other side of town only a week ago, and then two nights ago someone near here. We released an urgent plea to the public to report anything suspicious," DCI Porter explained. "But I pushed for police officers to keep watch here, and they saw him take you two out of his car. They've got photographs of him picking you both out and taking you up to this flat. The good thing is he's got a record, so we know his name."

Esmerelda was delighted non-magical people were good at their jobs, but she wondered if Mildred herself even knew about these steps to bring the rapist to justice.

* * *

DCI Porter was leaving the Hallow residence, disgusted by the virtually cold attitudes of the girls' parents. As was the protocol in the police she had escorted the girls home to let the parents know what had happened to them, and what could have happened if they hadn't arrived in time.

But while Mrs Hallow was upset for Esmerelda, she didn't spare any time for Ethel. DCI Porter, like all senior police officers, was trained to not interfere in the affairs of a family unless that family was involved in a dangerous crime, but while she had noticed it she hadn't said a word as her job forced her to do, but that didn't mean she couldn't be angry on Ethel's behalf inside her mind.

The girl had almost been raped, why the hell wasn't her parents interested in that?

To make matters worse, when she had announced there was a good chance they would have to testify in court, the Hallow parents had reacted badly, going on about what their friends would say, and Porter had needed all of her training, all of her experience to stop herself from lashing out. But Esmerelda had spoken up, and she was furious with her parents, telling them they cared more for their friends than they did their own children. DCI Porter had left the mansion, fed up with the arrogant parents, but not after telling Ethel they'd be in touch.

DCI Porter took a deep breath as she got into her car, and drove away. She had lots to do - she had to arrange with the magistrate to get that twisted bastard into prison and make sure he stayed there. She also had report to compose and file, and a lot more to do. But she would never forget the torture the girls - Mildred, that girl on the side of town, the girl from the same estate, and now the Hallow sisters - had gone through.

* * *

What do you think?


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